


Black Clover

by fs_hyuck



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Bartender Johnny, Brothers Johnny and Donghyuck, Detective captain Doyoung, Detective team Taeyong Yuta and Ten, M/M, Rookie detective Yukhei, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-10
Updated: 2019-05-16
Packaged: 2019-05-20 13:28:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14895464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fs_hyuck/pseuds/fs_hyuck
Summary: Johnny (25) owns a bar called, Black Clover, together with his little brother Donghyuck (20).Taeyong (25) works as a detective and is in a team together with Yuta (25), Ten (24), Doyoung (24) as their captain. One fateful day a rookie name Yukhei (21) joins the team.The once peaceful town of Blueoak gets overthrown with missing person cases and brutal murders.





	1. Blueoak

**Author's Note:**

> Hi this is the first time I finished writing something for a while, I apologize beforehand for any grammar mistakes, English is not my first language. (The police stuff was kinda inspired by B-99, so I don't know much about how it all works but I'll try to make it as understandable as I can.) 
> 
> I hope you enjoy reading it!
> 
> \-- = small timeskip in the day or point of view switch  
> \----- = bigger timeskip

“Gather around detectives!” Doyoung yelled as he walked out of his office, a file in his hands. He dropped the file on Taeyong’s desk before turning to his best team of detectives, but he would never admit it.

 

“I would like you to meet our new recruit and I’m placing him under your guidance detectives.” He looked from Taeyong to Yuta to Ten, the door of Doyoung’s office opened and a boy poked his head out through the door.

 

“Is this my cue to come in?” Yuta chuckled at the innocence the boy radiates. Doyoung sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, he waved his other arm as a sign to come in quickly.

 

Taeyong and Ten shot each other a knowing look, this was going to be fun. Taeyong immediately thought that this boy is going to be a rookie that didn’t know what he got into, it amused him.

 

“Detectives this is your new teammate/rookie, Wong Yukhei.” Doyoung said as the tall boy exited out of the office, he waved shyly at the others.

 

“Hello.” He spoke nervously, Yuta chuckled more. He clapped in his hands as he pushed himself of his desk. He walked towards the now new teammate and slung an arm over the boy’s shoulder. Ten let out an ‘oh boy’ before looking through some files.

 

“We are about to ruin your innocence, tall boy.” Yuta let his arm drop and walked away, but not before slapping Yukhei’s ass making him flinch in surprise.

 

Taeyong cleared his throat while he and Yukhei looked at Yuta disappearing around the corner. “Sorry about that.” 

 

“It’s okay.”

 

“Well onto the introductions!” Taeyong stepped forward to shake Yukhei’s hand. “I’m Taeyong, leader of this team,” Yukhei smiled, took his hand and shook it. Taeyong turned to the direction where Yuta came back with some papers. “That is Yuta, he is a weird one. But you noticed that already.” Turning around he pointed to their last member, “And that is Ten.”

 

Taeyong faced Yukhei again with a smile, “Welcome to the team, rookie.”

 

“Are you going to keep calling me that?”

 

“Yes we are, rookie” Yuta said moving closer again, Ten chuckled.

 

“If you slap his ass again then I am going to put yours in jail.” Taeyong said seriously eyeing Yuta’s every move. The male threw his hands up in defense as he stopped and backtracked to his computer.

 

“What is the new case you got?” Ten asked, typing his report on his new solved case. He eyed the file on Taeyong’s desk, Taeyong stood bewildered at the question Ten just asked.

 

“What new case? I got a new case?” Taeyong finally snapped out of his trance and walked towards his desk and picked up the file. “But I already have a few cases open.” He groaned as he read through it, his eyes stopped at some names. He looked up and towards Yukhei then down again, looked back up towards the captain's office and back down.

 

“What is it?” Yuta said walking closer to Yukhei’s side.

 

“Leave the boy alone, Nakamoto.” Taeyong said warning the male yet again. His eyes snapped back up from the paper and looked directly into Yukhei’s. “Get your ass in gear.” He said as he smacked the case file shut, “We are going for a stakeout!” 

 

Yuta and Ten clapped for Taeyong and cheered for him, “That was great!”

 

Taeyong let his hand drop from his sides and smiled, “ Right, thank you. Thank you.” He bowed but looked at Yukhei again, who still hasn’t moved an inch. “I wasn’t kidding, Wong. Let’s go.”

 

Once they both were seated in the car the tall boy opened his mouth to speak. “Why are we going for a stakeout?”

 

“Oh, right. Forgot to go over the case with you.” Taeyong fiddled with the papers and handed some to Yukhei. He put the keys into the car and started it up. “Fuck, wait, this is your first ever case in this department.”

 

Yukhei nodded but said yes quickly afterwards. “So we have to catch a pocket picker?”

 

“Yes and we kinda know what they look like, but at least we are going to the person's favourite place. For pocket picking.”

 

Yukhei laughed as they drove through the street, reading over the case once more. His heart was beating in his chest, yes this was his first case ever, and yes it’s lame as catching a person for pocket picking but nonetheless, Yukhei’s heart is still making over hours.

 

“Let’s catch this guy.” He said in a low voice as he brought out his binoculars, Taeyong looked shocked at the boy next to him, his once innocent aura changed to determination and seriousness. He was indeed impressed and knew why Doyoung had chosen Yukhei to join their detective team. They sat inside the car for what felt like an hour, they were watching over the corner where their pocket picker likes to strike the most, also preferably at night.

 

“How long has it been?” Taeyong asked as he brought out some snacks from the backseat, Yukhei looked at his watch.

 

“30 minutes.”

 

“Fuck.” Taeyong groaned, he was already getting tired of the silence, how can someone be so serious about catching some lame ass person. Yukhei’s hand smacked across Taeyong’s chest making the male jolt at the sudden impact. “What is it?”

 

“The person is here.”

 

“Where? I don’t see them.” Yukhei pointed at a person with their hood up, black ripped skinny jeans and army boots. “Oh.”

 

“Let’s go?”

 

“Yes, let’s follow them.”

 

They got out of the car and hid their badges, they began to follow the person in the hood for a couple of minutes when finally the person struck. They swiftly grabbed a woman’s wallet out of her pocket and casually put it in their own pocket.

 

“Action.” Taeyong whispered to Yukhei, “BOPD, stop right there!” The person took off in a sprint without a second thought, “Shit.” 

 

Yukhei chased after the person as quickly as possible, he ran after them until they ducked into an alley, Yukhei chuckled he is not that easy to trick. He went into the same alley and caught up with the runner and got a hold of him. He slammed the person against the wall, the person was rather tiny, about Taeyong’s height.

 

Taeyong rounded the corner and speed walked towards the two, the person tried getting out of Yukhei’s grip but to no avail.

 

“We got you now, pocket picker.” Taeyong said proudly, the person just scoffed. Yukhei took the person’s hood off to reveal their face, his breath got caught in his throat as he looked down at the beauty in front of him. He snapped out of it as soon as he heard Taeyong gasp.

 

“Donghyuck?”

 

“Taeyong! It’s good to see you! What are you doing here on this beautiful night?” Donghyuck chuckled as he held up his arms, Yukhei was still holding on the boy’s shoulders.

 

“Are you mad! Why are you stealing?!” Taeyong yelled at him, Donghyuck shrugged his shoulders.

 

“I wasn’t stealing, I don’t know what you are talking about.” Taeyong looked at him with a ‘are you kidding me’ face.

 

“Oh, really? What is this then?” Yukhei said as he grabbed the wallet of the woman earlier out of the boy’s pocket.

 

“Hey, back off!” Donghyuck tried to push Yukhei’s hands away.

 

“This is the wallet of that woman! You thief.” Donghyuck grabbed the wallet back out of the tall man's hands. He opened it up and took his ID out of the wallet, he showed both of them the card before putting it back with a scoff.

 

“This is my wallet and that woman stole it from me. I only stole it back.” This time he was able to throw Yukhei’s hands off his shoulders, he muttered a quick ‘morons’ before looking back at Taeyong. “How is the cop life going for ya now?”

 

Taeyong groaned and threw a glare at Donghyuck, who only looked smugly back. “Let’s get you home, Donghyuck.”

 

“Fine.” They began walking back to Taeyong’s car, “Wait but what about the pocket picker? That woman?”

 

“I’ll just have to report to Doyoung that we didn’t get her, but that we have a better description of her.” 

 

“Dammit.” Yukhei said underneath his breath, angry at himself for not solving his case. He got into the passenger seat and stayed silent as Taeyong drove towards Donghyuck’s house. 

 

“So I have never seen you here before.” Donghyuck began, “What’s your name?”

 

“Yukhei.” He answered, “And I just moved here.”

 

“Well, welcome to Blueoak, Yukhei.” Donghyuck said, leaning back in the backseat, the rest of the drive was filled with silence.

 

When they got where they needed to be, they got out. What Yukhei saw made him raise a brow, “You live in a bar?”

 

Donghyuck shrugged his shoulders and laughed, “No I live above it and I work there.” He turned to Taeyong and put a hand on the older’s shoulder, “Thanks for bringing me home. Care for a drink?”

 

“You up for a drink, Wong?”

 

“Our case hasn’t ended yet?”

 

“So? The captain doesn’t know.” Yukhei sighed as he nodded.

 

“Fine, but I better not get suspended because of you.”

 

“Great!” Donghyuck clapped in his hands and began to walk into the bar. Yukhei read the place name as Taeyong followed Donghyuck inside. 

 

“Black Clover, huh?” Yukhei said, he put his hands in his pockets and pushed the door of the bar open. The smell of beer and whiskey immediately hitting his nose, he scrunches his face in disgust.

 

“Johnny!” Yukhei’s head turned into the direction of Taeyong’s voice, the older detective was seated at the bar and was gaining the attention of the bartender. Yukhei decided that he should go over there because people were staring him down, it made him feel uncomfortable. When he approached he saw Donghyuck next to the bartender, helping him out.

 

“Johnny meet Yukhei, Yukhei meet Johnny.” Taeyong said with a bottle of beer in his hands, he leaned closer to Yukhei who was now sitting next to him and whispered, “Johnny owns the bar, fyi.”

 

Yukhei nodded and held his hand out for Johnny to shake, the man buldered with laughter and took his hand gladly in his own. “Welcome in the Black Clover! You must be new here.”

 

“Yeah I am, I moved here because of my job.”

 

“Which you suck at.” Donghyuck coughed, trying to make it go unnoticed but he got a por in his side from Johnny and an assignment to serve table 6. Taeyong turns on his stool and hopped off, muttering something along the lines of going to the toilet before leaving the two alone.

 

Johnny who was drying glasses spoke up, “So are you working with the chaotic team?”

 

“Chaotic team?”

 

“Yeah, Yuta Nakamoto, Ten and Taeyong Lee, together with their captain Doyoung Kim. They sometimes get an extra member but they quit in the next few days. Saying that they are unbearable to work with, and I know that because nearly everyone in Blueoak goes here to talk about their misery.” The tall man laughed about it, “So you think you are going to hold out longer?” 

 

“Most definitely, the only thing I’m worried about is my butt but that’s it.”

 

Johnny had another fit of laughter, “Nakamoto sure acts faster these days.” 

 

A sound of glass shattering put a stop to Johnny’s loud laughter “Watch where you are going, kid!” 

 

“You bumped into me, you old freak!” Donghyuck’s voice laced with annoyance broke through the air at the same time Taeyong got back into the bar area. Yukhei turned in his chair and he saw shattered glass with empty bottles rolling on the ground, the man stood up and took out a gun.

 

“Hey! Calm down, sir.” Johnny said from behind the bar, the man had his gun pointed at Donghyuck who held his arms up. Yukhei looked at Taeyong, who looked back at him. Taeyong didn’t know what to do, he didn’t have a gun on him. He heard a click of the safety of a gun being pulled back, his head snapped up to look at the scene in front of him.

 

“BOPD, drop your weapon. You are under arrest.” Yukhei said as he had his badge around his neck and his gun held in both hands. The man walked closer to Donghyuck.

 

“This ass hat stole my wallet and I came here to get it back. You should arrest him.” The man said his voice laced with poison, to which Yukhei only shrugged his shoulders and repeated the same sentence he said before.

 

“Now correct me if I’m wrong, but you stole the boy’s wallet and the wallet of a woman, you saw they were identical but the wallet of the female wasn’t worth stealing so you gave her the boy’s wallet for safekeeping, so that you could switch it back with her wallet and keep the boy’s wallet. Only there was one mistake, the boy stole it back and got chased by us before going home. You followed us and pretended like you were already here, then you bumped into him making him drop everything and for you to get a scene where you can take the boy’s wallet again.” Yukhei was greeted by silence, wide eyes and a gasp from the boy, he narrowed his eyes at the man, a smirk forming on his lips. “Am I right or am I right?”

 

The man pushed the table behind him out of the way as he broke out in a sprint, but before he could get far Taeyong already tackled him to the ground. Yukhei had seen Taeyong quietly move from where he stood to behind the man just before they began running.

 

“You have the right to remain silent.” Taeyong said as he put the man in handcuffs, “Everything you say will be held against you.” Yukhei walked to pick up the man’s gun and got to Johnny and Donghyuck.

 

“You okay, buddy?”

 

“Y-Yes.”

 

“Wong!” Yukhei turned his head and saw Taeyong waiting by the door while holding the man, “Let’s go.” 

 

“Yes, uh, right.” He turned back to Donghyuck and Johnny, “Have a nice night and get home safely.”

“We live upstairs, Yukhei.” Johnny said, stifling a laugh.

 

“Right, uh, sorry.” That was the last thing he said before he darted towards Taeyong, they opened the door of the bar and went out, back to Taeyong’s car. In the car, Taeyong turned to look at Yukhei twice, before gaining his attention.

 

“What is it, Lee?”

 

“Just. How did you know about all that?”

 

“Oh, that. Well I saw him getting that woman’s wallet and Donghyuck’s wallet at the traffic light a few blocks away, he checked them but I saw him put the one in his right hand, Donghyuck’s wallet, back in the woman’s pocket.”

 

“But then you already saw what Donghyuck was wearing and what that man was wearing. You could’ve just said so and we would’ve gotten out of the car.”

 

“Yes and no,” Yukhei answered, “One because I wanted to know what a steak out was like, and two he would’ve run before we got out of the car.”

 

Taeyong frowned, “So back in that alley with Donghyuck was all acting?”

 

“Yeah, kind of. I needed to know if my theory was correct and I am glad he dove into that alley. Because I saw him,” Yukhei jerked his thumb back, “Passing by and on the way to Black Clover I saw him following us. Only he went through the back door and that is why I read the sign above the bar.”

 

“Holy shit, Wong. You are a genius.” Taeyong’s eyes were wide as he pulled to a stop, “That was so cool, I get why Doyoung put you on our team.”

 

Yukhei laughed and exited the car, opening the back door and getting the man out. “You know I heard from Johnny that no one really holds it out with you guys.”

 

“Oh, yeah, that. It’s because Yuta and Ten never work seriously on the work floor, so Doyoung always sets the rookie on cases with me but they’ll get tired of Yuta and Ten, so they’ll quit.”

 

“But they are hard working in the field.” The elevator bell chimed and the doors opened, before Taeyong could say anything Yukhei already left to put the man in their holding cell. Yuta and Ten stood up and clapped.

 

“You caught the guy!” “Nice job!” Taeyong just smiled and went after Yukhei, he found him in the printer room. He grabbed the tall boy by his arm to gain his attention. When Yukhei turned to him, he began to speak.

 

“H-How did you know about that?”

 

“Maybe because I was the same in the B-grade. No one really wanted to work on small cases with me. I am clumsy and shy on the work floor, but in the field, I see everything most of the time. My captain there knew that and now I am here!” Yukhei held the biggest smile on his face, it was contagious. “And if you want me to leave, you’ll have to make me.” 

 

\--

 

“You really should go upstairs, Hyuck.” 

 

“I’m fine, Johnny.” Donghyuck said as he cleaned up the beer that was spilled a little earlier, Johnny walked to him and laid a hand on his shoulder. Donghyuck tensed and turned around faster than lighting.

 

“You were shaking and you still are, I will clean this up but you, go upstairs.” Donghyuck stood up with Johnny’s help.

 

“But I don’t want to be alone.” Donghyuck’s voice cracked as he held onto Johnny’s shirt.

 

“Call Mark, he can stay with us for the night and you won’t be alone until I come upstairs.”

 

“Mark has the night shift, some idiot disordered all the letters. He has to sort them by tomorrow morning together with Taeil.” Instead of holding onto Johnny’s shirt, Donghyuck had gotten closer and was now hugging his brother, too scared to let go. Somebody coughed at the other side of the room.

 

“I can stay with you, Hyuckie.” 

 

“Jungwoo!!” Donghyuck let go of Johnny and ran to the male on the bar stool, he nearly tackled him to the ground. 

 

“Hey, buddy!” Jungwoo laughed, “Hey Johnny.”

 

“When did you get back?” Johnny asked settling down on the chair next to Jungwoo and a cuddly Donghyuck. Jungwoo laughed again, petting Donghyuck’s hair.

 

“Yesterday night. It must've been boring without me?”

 

“Yes! I missed the freshly baked bread in the morning.” After catching up Johnny ushered them to go upstairs, he cleaned the rest of the mess up. He leaned against the counter of the bar, where he stands 4 nights a week. Chatting, listening, serving. 

 

The Black Clover is one of the popular bars in Blueoak, Johnny’s dad was the owner of it but since he is out of town he had left the bar in his care. Johnny found it difficult to run a bar but he got the hang of it and now it is like muscle memory. He constantly has worries about Donghyuck, those worries were at its peak tonight. When he stood frozen behind the bar watching a man pull out a gun and point it at his little brother. 

 

Johnny sighed and ran his hands over his face, trying to forget what happened for a moment, to make him feel more relaxed, before closing up the bar and taking a few steps to the right and opening the front door, locking it behind him. Walking up the stairs he threw out his final thoughts, before opening the door to their house and again locking it behind him. He went to his bedroom and changed into more comfortable clothes, then he headed for the living room. He heard the sound of the TV when he entered the house, so Johnny knew that Donghyuck and Jungwoo were probably watching a movie.

 

“Hey guys, what movie-” He cut himself off and stopped in his tracks, he looked at the scene in front of him and felt a weird feeling. Jungwoo was lying on the couch with Donghyuck on top of him, clinging onto him as a baby koala would do to its mother. A small smile broke out on Johnny's lips, he took out his phone and made multiple pictures, he always has been a person to capture memories. He quickly got a blanket and draped it over the two of them, he went back into his own room and got the pillow and the blanket of his bed and took it down the other set of stairs back into the living room.

 

He settled down on the other couch and fell asleep rather quickly.

 

\-----

 

“Hey! Yukhei!” Yukhei looked up from his phone, while he was waiting for the elevator to get down and saw Ten walk inside the building. A week had passed since Yukhei’s first day and he still wasn’t used to people greeting him so friendly.

 

“Oh, good morning Ten!” Ten stood next to Yukhei just in time ‘cause the elevator doors slid open, they stepped inside and Ten adjusted the strap of his shoulder bag. It didn’t take long before the doors opened up again, they stepped out and walked into the precinct, Taeyong and Yuta were already seated at their desks. 

 

“Hello, gayents.” Ten said as he walked to his desk, Yukhei went to his own desk and saw a few case files lying there waiting to be opened.

 

“I’m not gay.” Yuta replied looking up from his computer screen, Ten snickered and put his hands on his hip. Taeyong and Yukhei looked at each other from behind their desks, Taeyong mouthed ‘this is normal’ to Yukhei, who just nodded in response.

 

“Well, that is a lie.” Ten said to Yuta, with a smirk playing on his lips.

 

“Suck my ass.” Yuta scoffed and turned back to his computer.

 

“Kun can do that.” Ten sat down at the desk in front of Yuta, who looked at him in shock and then at Yukhei. He looked at Yuta with curiosity.

 

“Who is Kun?”

 

Yuta sighed and glared at a laughing Taeyong and Ten. “Kun is my husband.”

 

“Wait, Kun as in the music shop owner, Kun?”

 

“Yup, that’s my baby.” Yuta said popping the ‘p’, leaning back in his desk chair with a satisfying look on his face.

 

“So, gay.” Ten said, disturbing Yuta’s peace as he shot back in normal sitting position took an eraser in his hand and threw it at the snickering black haired male. Yukhei rolled his eyes and went back to his pile of files. All of them were missing person cases, he felt a pair of eyes staring at him, so he looked up and met Taeyong’s intense gaze, which changed to a smile really quickly.

 

“I can tell you about the cases so you don’t have to read them all, we just need an extra pair of hands on these cases.” Taeyong informed Yukhei, the team on these cases now consisted of him, Yuta, Ten and Taeyong as the leader. Taeyong rolled his chair over to Yukhei’s desk and began to talk about the cases, only to be cut short by Doyoung coming out of his office.

 

“Detective Nakamoto, Lee, Ten and Wong.” He said in a stern voice, all heads snapped towards his direction, they stood up as soon as they heard their name. “My office now.”

 

Yukhei swallowed the lump in his throat, he was afraid, he only worked here for a week and solved a case on his first day. Only it was a small case, but still, he solved a case. He had a gut feeling that the captain would send him away or move him to another precinct, a pat on the back from Taeyong snapped the boy out of his trance.

 

The four of them stood in Doyoung’s office, Yuta was the last to enter and closed the door behind him.

 

“Close the blinds.” Doyoung ordered from behind his desk, Ten moved so quickly that Yukhei thought he had the powers of Flash. Doyoung cleared his throat and gave a file to Taeyong, which he took without hesitation, it contained some gruesome pictures and a case about a murder of two people, no suspects were linked to the case. “I know that you have a lot of missing person cases going on, but this will come first, I want you guys to check out the crime scene and look for more evidence or clues.”

 

“Hold on a minute.” Taeyong said as he looked at the picture of a severed head, he held the picture in between his fingers as he opened the door of the office.

 

“Hey, Taeyong! Wait!” Yuta said trying to stop the man but he couldn’t, Taeyong was already at Yukhei’s desk searching through the case files. The others had surrounded the desk Taeyong let out an ‘aha!’ and laid the picture next to another one. 

 

“The faces match.” Taeyong said proudly, “I recognized her face, she is the person that I’ve been looking for these past three weeks.”

 

“Well you found her.” Doyoung deadpanned pushing his glasses back up.

 

“Yeah, I did!” Taeyong said happily but then turned serious when he fully understood. “Oh, shit.”

 

“Check if the other person is identifiable as one of the missing person cases, if not then go to the crime scene. Dismissed.” Doyoung said then he turned around and walked back into his office closing the door behind him, he kept the blinds shut.

 

“Shit, Lee.” Ten sighed, “You okay?”

 

“Yes, I’m fine. I’ll be better if we solve this, just as the other missing person cases. I don’t want more victims to be added to the list.” Taeyong said as he grabbed the files and walked away, his shoulders slumped.

 

“He is clearly upset.” Yuta notified the others, “He probably feels like he already failed all his cases.” Everyone was already packing their stuff they need for the crime scene, Yukhei’s heart was pounding all over again. This was his first ever murder case, all the cases he had as a B-cop were not really that special. It made excitement and anxiety run through his veins. 

 

“Let’s go.” Taeyong put on his coat as he said that, picking his bag from his desk and walking towards the elevator, the other three followed suit. 

 

“What are the sunglasses for?” Yukhei asked Taeyong, who was wearing sunglasses for probably no reason at all, ‘cause the sun isn’t even shining. 

 

“To make me look cool and cold.” Taeyong took off the sunglasses rather dramatically and stared off into the distance, which made Yuta and Ten sigh, and Yukhei just giggle.

 

\-----

 

“Maybe it’s time for you to stop.” Johnny said as he took away another empty beer bottle from the man in front of him, who is lying with his head on the bar groaned trying to take it back. 

 

“Damn, Taeyong what happened with you?” Donghyuck asked as soon as he got back to get some drinks, Taeyong lifted his head to look at the boy with a frown before putting his head back down. “Alright then.” Donghyuck and Johnny nodded at each other in an understanding matter, Donghyuck called Seulgi over and he took the drinks that stood on the bar.

 

Johnny got out from behind the bar, “Seulgi could you make drinks and such for a moment?”

 

“Yeah, of course, Johnny. You need to handle this wreck.” She poked Taeyong’s side, which made him shot up. 

 

“I am not a wreck.” Taeyong slurred, pointing at Seulgi. Only for her to correct him slightly to the left.

 

“Sure, you are not.” Seulgi laughed, she patted Johnny’s shoulder before she went behind the bar, already working on her first order. Johnny stood next to Taeyong, he dragged the barstool back and sat down.

 

“You want to tell me?”

 

“No.”

 

“Oh, come on. The last time you drank this much was when Donghyuck finally said he likes you. And that was happy drinking, this is-” Johnny stopped mid-sentence because of the glare Taeyong was giving him, he sighed. “This is just sad drinking.”

 

“Fine you wanna know?” Johnny nodded, Taeyong leaned forward and whispered, “I can’t tell you here though.”

 

“We can go to the back? Or to the apartment, so that you can go to sleep afterward?”

 

“I don’t need sleep! I can party all night!” Taeyong yelled as soon as he got off his barstool, attracting attention in the crowded bar.

 

“Apartment it is.” Johnny helped Taeyong get out of the bar and into the apartment above it, after some stumbling, he finally placed Taeyong down on the couch in the living room. He quickly walked to the kitchen and grabbed two glasses, filling it with water before heading back to Taeyong, who was hunched over on the couch.

 

“It’s about a case.” Taeyong’s voice was small, “So promise me you’ll either forget this or you don’t tell anyone.” 

 

“I won’t. You know that.”

 

Taeyong chugged the glass of water down before he turned to Johnny, he really liked to stare at his face, not creepily or anything like that, more like with admiration. Taeyong found himself falling more and more for the bartender whenever he was at the bar celebrating ‘cause he solved another case. To say that he has a crush is highly likely.

 

“Alright, I told you about all those missing person cases that have been coming in these past few weeks?” Johnny nodded, “Well today we found two of them, after three weeks of them being missing.”

 

“That’s great!”

 

“Yeah, not really.”

 

“What why not?” Johnny was confused, why would Taeyong be sad drinking if he solved two cases.

 

“Because they are dead.” Luckily Johnny had given Taeyong two glasses of water so that Taeyong still had something to hold in his hands. “Torn apart, we only could find some body parts.” He took a sip from his water, the serious tone in his voice made Johnny think that the man was already sober after one glass of water.

 

“Damn, Taeyong. I didn’t know it was that bad.” Taeyong ran his hand through his hair.

 

“And you know what’s worse? I shouldn’t even be feeling this way. I shouldn’t be emotionally attached to cases.” Taeyong voice cracked, “I should be at my desk right now, trying to find out what happened. Why it happened. Who killed them.” Taeyong stood up the now empty glass still in his hands, without thinking he threw the glass against the wall on the left of them. The sound of glass shattering made Johnny flinch, but what was worse was Taeyong’s outbreak. “I shouldn’t! Be! Drinking! My! Feelings away!” He yelled out, clearly angry at himself than at Johnny.

 

Johnny stood up and stepped towards Taeyong, who was pacing around the living room. He grabbed Taeyong’s upper arms and made him come to a halt, eyes wide open. “Hey, look. You have every right to feel things, okay? Detective work is hard, mentally and physically. I know you’ll work very hard to solve this mystery and I know you will do it amazingly.” Johnny hugged Taeyong, he felt his shoulder slightly getting damp. “It’s okay, Taeyong. It’s okay to feel sad, hurt or anything in that matter. Your feelings matter and don’t be sorry for them.” He said to him in a hushed voice, Johnny leaned back and put his forehead against Taeyong’s, in the years that they are friends this was the way to calm Taeyong down, especially when he was drunk.

 

“I have a gut feeling Johnny.” Taeyong said, his voice was small, he didn’t want it to crack again.

 

“A gut feeling?” Taeyong hummed, pulling away and looking Johnny in the eye.

 

“I feel like no human could have committed this murder.”

 

Before Johnny could say anything else the front door of the apartment bursts open. “Taeyong! Are you here? It’s urgent!”

 

\--

 

Sometimes Yukhei is glad he is someone who can help others, return stolen things, give justice to those that deserve it, ease the pain. His hands gripped the steering wheel as he focused on the road, his car speeded towards one location. He needed to speak to Taeyong, he didn’t pick up his phone and Ten told him Taeyong probably felt bad and went to drink. Knowing that there is one place Taeyong loves to go to, Yukhei didn’t hesitate to run to his car with the documents in his hand.

 

When he arrived he opened his car door, hair fluttering in the wind, going to the passenger seat and taking the documents back in his hands. He fast walked into the bar, looking around for a sign of Taeyong, “Fuck. Fuck.” Yukhei cursed underneath his breath, not seeing the man anywhere, nor the friendly bartender Johnny he met last week. He spotted a familiar orange haired boy waving his way through the crowd, a tray full of empty glasses balanced above his head. Yukhei walked to the same place at the bar, where the boy ends up.

 

“Donghyuck!” The boy and the woman both turned their heads, “Have you seen Taeyong?” Yukhei asked once he was in front of Donghyuck, resting his arm on the bar.

“Yeah, I have. Why?”

 

“Where is he?”

 

“Upstairs with Johnny. Again why?”

 

“Can you give me the keys to your apartment?” 

 

“Yes, I can.” Yukhei did a little cheer and held his hand out, which Donghyuck shook, “But why would I give it to you?” He smirked when he said that, bringing his hand to his side, popping his hip out to the left and holding the empty tray in his right hand, tucked next to his side.

 

Yukhei groaned, wanting all this to go faster, “Police business. Now please give me the keys.”

 

“What do I gain from it, pretty boy?” Donghyuck said before he could even think, both flushing red after realizing what he had said. Yukhei couldn’t think straight and blurred out, “A kiss on the cheek?”

 

The woman behind the bar laughed, Yukhei eyed her and saw her name tag, Seulgi. His eyes snapped back to Donghyuck when he heard the sound of keys clanging against each other. “Here.” Yukhei broke out in a smile and took the keys in hand, “Wait.” Donghyuck held onto the keys, Yukhei understood and leaned in closer to him, only to be stopped by a hand on his chest. “No, not that! I have multiple keys and you seem in a hurry so you need to know which keys you need. The red one is for the door on the street and the green one is the door of our apartment, the door on your right once you get on the top of the stairs.” Donghyuck huffed out a breath after he finished giving the information to Yukhei, he let the keys go and they fall into Yukhei’s hands.

 

“Thank you!” Yukhei said as he quickly gave Donghyuck a kiss on the cheek, he then turned around hiding his blush and sprinting out of the bar, leaving an even redder Donghyuck behind. He went to the door on his right and took out the red key, opening that door and then sprinted up the stairs, turning his body to the right yet again and taking out the green key and opening the door of the apartment, he swung it open and banged against the wall a little too loudly, but Yukhei could care less. 

 

“Taeyong? Are you here! It’s urgent!” He said as he closed the door he so rudely swung open, he heard footsteps and soon enough Taeyong and Johnny stood in the little hall.

 

“Yukhei?” He could see something shining on Taeyong’s cheeks, his eyes widened as he noticed they were tears.

 

“Have you been crying?” Taeyong tensed up and quickly wiped the salty tears of his face, he then shook his head. Taeyong saw that Yukhei was holding some files in his right hand.

 

“What are those for?” He said pointing to Yukhei’s right hand, which helped Yukhei to snap out his worried trance.

 

“Right, the urgent part of this whole break-in.”

 

“Break in?” Johnny asked, “Wait how do you have keys?”

 

“Donghyuck.” Taeyong and Yukhei answer in union, Johnny groaned.

 

“That little devil.” Johnny cursed a bit under his breath, “How did you even get them, I told him to never give them to anyone.”

 

“Well-”

 

“Not now!” Taeyong butted in before another conversation could start, he was on edge and it was noticeable. “Can we just go into the living room and then you can tell me what is so urgent.” Taeyong led Yukhei into the living room, while Johnny quickly got them something to drink before saying that he trusts Taeyong to not destroy his house and left to go back to the bar.

 

“You are so not sober.” Yukhei sighed, “Anyways, while you disappeared to god knows where to first, we sent the, uh, parts to get an autopsy and guess what came back.”

 

“The report?”

 

“Yes! The report got delivered just half an hour ago, we looked through it and found something really strange, which is why this is really important for you to hear.” Yukhei said as he shuffled through the papers to get to the right one, he showed it to Taeyong and he pointed at something on the paper. “It says that the ends are not cut, they were torn off. Like animal wise, torn off.” Then he proceeded to get another paper and Taeyong’s gut feeling from earlier just grew and grew. “On the, uh, arm we saw deep cuts, right?”

 

“Right.” Taeyong could feel himself sobering up a little bit more, “I knew that I found that really weird.”

 

“That is indeed true, it is really weird.” Yukhei showed Taeyong the other papers he gathered, “The deep cuts were claw marks and to make it weirder, I took a picture of the wall in the alley where the crime scene was not far away from,” Yukhei took out the picture and laid it next to the one of the arm and the head, “They are exactly the same.”

 

“So you’re telling me that a wild animal is loose in this town? But that would be impossible.” Yukhei nodded and gulped.

 

“It is impossible, in the hair of the lady Yuta found something sticky right? So we told captain Kim about it and he said that we should send it to the lab for a possible DNA-test.” Yukhei leaned forward again to reach the last paper on the table, “These were the test results.”

 

“It says that it matches with nothing?” Taeyong got really confused, “No human, no animal or other creatures that live on this earth. How is that possible?” His gut feeling suddenly shot to rock bottom, “Do you think it’s something supernatural?”

 

“Well at this point, if you would tell me that this happened because of a supernatural creature,” Yukhei pointed at an overview shot of the crime scene, “I would say, yes.” 


	2. Night Before The Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Follow Yuta, Ten, Yukhei and Taeyong as they spend their night with family or friends before they go and do something that could change lives.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> English is not my first language so I apologize beforehand for any grammar or spelling mistakes.
> 
> This is kinda a chapter to get to know the characters a bit more and note there has been a time skip since the last chapter, I hope you enjoy!  
> Also everything kind of happens at the same time but written from a different POV (first Yuta, then Ten, Yukhei and lastly Taeyong)

Taeyong grabbed the file that laid on his desk on the way to the office of the captain, he knocked and went in. 

 

“What can I do for you?” Doyoung asked leaning back in his chair, Taeyong gave him the file.

 

“I looked at the places where most of the missing people were before they, well before they went missing.” Doyoung looked at Taeyong over the rim of his glasses, he placed the file down, mentioning Taeyong to continue. “This could’ve been done earlier but most of the family or friends didn’t want to talk and were still in denial that the person was missing and that they were just on vacation.”

 

“So you finally got some of them to talk?” Taeyong nodded, he pointed to a picture of a creepy looking building.

 

“That is the Haunted Hotel, it is in Violetholt, the town between Blueoak and Neoville. Its rooms are themed by iconic horror films, which is pretty awesome. But not so awesome if people keep disappearing there. I want to go there with the team to investigate and I need your approval for that, sir.”

 

“You can go but update me every two hours when you are there, I don’t want another four missing person cases.” Doyoung gave the file back to Taeyong, who saluted.

 

“Aye, aye captain!” Taeyong walked out of the office quickly before Doyoung had the time to yell at him, he clapped in his hands gaining the guys' attention. “Alright, ladies.”

 

Ten rolled his eyes, “What’s up?” 

 

“We are going to have a sleepover!” Taeyong said jumping up and down excitedly, but none of them reacted so he stopped, “Why is no one cheering with me?” A clearing of someone’s throat behind Taeyong made him turn around.

 

“I hope you take this case very seriously, detective Lee.” Doyoung said when the two made eye contact, “Or the higher ups may take the cases.” 

 

Taeyong gulped and nodded quickly, “Of course, sir. I take this really serious.” With that Doyoung walked away, Taeyong turned back around, “And I was also serious about the sleepover.” Taeyong went over the plan of them staying at the Haunted Hotel, “We are going there to look for clues, in the evening it is time to relax.”

 

“So do we need to start packing?” 

 

“Yes. We leave tomorrow.” Taeyong said, “Now go home and enjoy time with family or friends.” 

 

\--

  
  
  


The music shop is like Yuta’s second home, the smell of wood and the sound of instruments that is always changing. But there is one thing he loves more about the music shop than the shop itself.

 

“Yuta!!” Chenle ran to Yuta, who dropped his bag to the ground and the files he held in his hands to catch the boy as he jumped into Yuta’s arms.

 

“Hey, buddy!”

 

Yuta put Chenle down after giving him a kiss on his cheek, even though the boy is 19-years-old, he is still tiny and over cuddly. Yuta doesn’t mind ‘cause he has a lot of love to give and that isn’t always accepted by his friends in the precinct, but yet again Yuta could care less about it.

 

“You’re here early.” A soothing voice sounded from the right, where Kun was standing near a piano with a customer testing it. “Excuse me for a second.” Kun said to the customer who nodded and went back to playing the piano.

 

“Hey there, sexy.” Yuta smirked when Kun got closer, Chenle faked gagged.

 

“That is my cue to leave.” Chenle walked towards the customer at the register, who wanted to buy a guitar.

 

“Could you stop being an embarrassment?” Kun asked when he stopped Yuta’s hand from getting any lower than his back.

 

“Only for you I can.” Yuta’s smirk still hadn’t left his lips, Kun sighed and pecked his husband's lips. The man nearly melted at the small gesture.

 

“Oh, please. We’ve been together for over 5 years.” 

 

“You still manage to make me melt.” Yuta grinned his famous grin and Kun just laughed, “I’ll put my stuff upstairs and I’ll see you with Chenle there in a few minutes or so?” He said as he slung his bag over his shoulder again and grabbed his files off of the floor.

 

“Yes. You probably have something to tell us?”

 

“How did you know?!”

 

“Just a small guess.” Kun shrugged his shoulders and made his way back to the customer at the piano, but not before facing Yuta again midway. “And you never bring files with you unless you are going somewhere for work.” He winked and then averted his attention back to the customer, leaving Yuta speechless and mouth agape. 

 

“You could catch flies like that, Yuta!” Chenle shrieked from behind the register, Yuta turned his head to glare at the boy before went out of the store and went to the door on the left. Those two, but most of the time three, were the things he loved more about the music shop than the shop itself. Yuta entered their apartment above the music shop with a smile, he laid his stuff down on the table in the living room, he himself laid down on the couch, waiting for Kun and Chenle to come upstairs.

 

He nearly drifted off to sleep but he got scared once the door flew open, and a Chenle jumped on top of him screaming on the top of his lungs.

 

“It’s literally been a day, Chenle.” Yuta groaned as the boy showered him with kisses, it made him stop.

 

“Still! I can miss you as much as I want.” He pouted and crawled off of Yuta, sitting at the end of the couch.

 

“So you wanted to tell us something?” Kun came in with two cups of coffee and a glass of water, he had grabbed while Chenle was showering Yuta with love.

 

“Ah, yes. About that.” Yuta began as he took the cup out of Kun’s hand, “I have a job to do, as you know.” Chenle chuckled and Kun shook his head.

 

“Of course, it’s not like you are jobless.” Kun tried to sound reasonable about what Yuta said but it only came over as a joke.

 

“That was stupid to say.” Yuta took a sip of his coffee, “Moving on, I have to go away for some time.”

 

“Nooo! You can’t! Renjun is coming home!” Chenle whined, “We promised to all be home.”

 

“I know baby. But this case is such a mystery and we may be getting onto something, we only have to stay at a hotel in Violetholt to figure things out.” Yuta leaned over and ruffled Chenle’s hair, “I’ll be back in no time.”

 

“Do you need help with packing?”

 

Yuta perked up, “That would be lovely!” 

 

After drinking up their coffee Yuta and Kun left Chenle alone to watch a movie, they went to their bedroom and pulled open Yuta’s side of the closet.

 

“So you’re going with the team, right? And that new rookie you were talking about?”

 

“Yes!” Yuta answered to both Kun’s questions as he opened his suitcase, “I’m sad that the captain doesn’t want to tag along, though. Would have been fun.”

 

Kun kneeled next to Yuta with a pile of clothes and started to put them in the suitcase, “You know that this is not a fun trip? What you find there might change the lives of a lot of people.”

 

“What do you mean?” Yuta looked at Kun confused, “Well I get that this is not a fun trip, because it’s work, but what do you mean, it could change the lives of a lot of people.”

 

“Well, you have the missing person cases, right?” Yuta nodded as he folded a pair of jeans, “What you find there could be something good or something bad.”

 

“Oh.” Yuta said softly as he held his hands on the pair of jeans he just placed in his suitcase. “I get what you mean.” Yuta quickly stood up and dusted himself off, “Excuse me for a moment.” He walked out of the room and grabbed the box that stood on the living room’s table, Chenle spared a glance at Yuta before Yuta disappeared into his workroom. 

 

“What is with him?” Chenle asked, having paused his movie, he turned his head towards  Kun, who stood in the living room doorway. He walked towards the couch and pushed Chenle to sit up, to drag him back down so that he was leaning against Kun’s chest.

 

“Probably re-reading files.” Kun sighed as he ran his fingers through Chenle’s hair, while he pushed the play button for the movie again. 

 

“Will he come back safely?”

 

“Of course! He is Yuta if anything is ever going to hurt him is it being yelled at by me or you, or Renjun.” Kun chuckled, “Or lose us, but we’re not going to think about that tonight.” Kun pecked the top of Chenle’s head.

 

“I also meant Renjun.”

 

“Oh, but of course. I trust Jeno to bring himself and Renjun back safely.”

 

“Don’t they have to go through the forest?” Kun swallowed before answering.

 

“Yes they have to, but yet again I trust them both. Renjun is strong and he’ll scare everything off by just looking at it.” It caused Chenle to laugh.

 

“That is probably true.”

  
  
  
  
  


\--

  
  
  


The smell of burning dough hit Ten’s nose as he walked inside the bakery, it wasn’t the smell he expected so his face scrunched in disgust. He heard a lot of noise coming from the kitchen and he knew that the owner probably didn't hear the bell ring when he opened the door.

 

“Shit! Oh, Jungwoo is going to kill me!” Ten heard that being shouted somewhere in the kitchen. The ajar door got opened more and a young male walked out, he was wiping his hands off on a towel that was tucked in his apron. He looked up shocked when Ten cleared his throat, “Oh! H-Hello, sir.” 

 

The boy greeted him, “Sir? Oh, please call me Ten. Is Jungwoo here?”

 

The boy shook his head, “No, he is out buying more supplies, 'cause we were running low on them. But you can wait here! I-If you don't mind, of course...” He fiddled with the ends of the towel and he looked really embarrassed.

 

“It’s totally fine, but I smell something burning and I guess Jungwoo is not going to be happy if he finds out?”

 

“That. Right. Yes, it’s a special cake and we needed it to be done for tomorrow, but I forgot about it while cleaning the counter and the rest of the store, until I smelled something burning…” A frown appeared on the boy’s face and Ten felt sympathy.

 

“I can help you clean up and say that it was my fault you weren't on time to get the cake out of the oven.” The boy’s head shot up and his eyes gleamed, his frown was now gone and turned upside down.

 

“R-Really? You would do that?”

 

“Yes, but how long has he been gone?”

 

“About ten minutes?”

 

“Then let's get moving kid.” Ten walked behind the counter and walked passed the boy into the kitchen, where he saw the wreckage with his own two eyes.

 

“My name is Jaemin, by the way.” He smiled when he stood next to Ten, they shook hands and then began cleaning up the kitchen, plus ventilating the room to get the burned smell out of the place as best as they could. 

 

They successfully cleaned up and went back into the shop, getting to know each other more, after a while the back door opened and sound came from the kitchen again.

 

“Jaemin?!” Jungwoo's sweet voice was heard shouting the boy’s name. Jaemin had gotten up and walked into the kitchen, not before mentioning Ten to follow him.

 

“What happened to the cake?” Jungwoo asked Ten’s eyes widened, there was no way in hell that Jungwoo would have noticed that something happened to the cake. They cleaned way too good for that, Jungwoo's gaze fell on Ten when he walked through the kitchen doors.

 

“Oh, hey Ten! Didn't know you were here.” Jungwoo was leaning on his hand with his elbow resting on top of the kitchen counter. Ten waved and then rested his arm on Jaemin’s shoulders.

 

“About the cake…” Ten began because Jaemin was still a stuttering mess and couldn't get the words out. “It burned because I was talking with him and he wasn’t on time to get the cake out of the oven.”

 

“Is that true?” Jungwoo's voice came out harsher than he intended it to be. Jaemin nodded his head fast and Jungwoo just sighed. 

 

“I’m sorry that I messed up…” Jaemin apologized with a deep bow but Jungwoo waved it off with a smile.

 

“It’s fine, we’ll just make a new one and I’ll inform the client. She is not going to be happy about it but I could care less.” Jungwoo walked towards the bags and began pulling the groceries out of the bag, “She is a bitch.”

 

Ten snorted while Jaemin’s mouth fell wide open.

 

“You can’t say that about a lady! And she is nice.” 

 

“Lady, my ass. She is bratty and snobby as fuck, maybe she is nice to you but me? She despises me.” Ten laughed out loud again, he joined the two with unpacking the groceries.

 

“How can she hate you? You are a lovely person.”

 

“I have no idea, I probably did something wrong to piss her off.” Jungwoo shrugged his shoulders and laughed, putting the eggs in the fridge. “But why are you here?”

 

Ten explained why he was there and they fell into a conversation, eventually with no customers coming made Jungwoo close the bakery and the three of them began to bake the cake that was supposed to be done today.

 

\--

  
  


Yukhei whistled swinging his arms, in his hand a letter that he delivers every two weeks, today that day is a little bit earlier. He had already written the reason why at the beginning of the letter to his parents. He walked up the familiar steps of the stairs that led into the post office, when he walked in he heard muttering and the squeaking of wheels. The bell above the door ringed and he could hear the creaking of wood, footsteps got closer until the boy that Yukhei has gotten to know in his visits, came around the corner.

 

“Ah! Yukhei!” 

 

“Hey, Mark!” The boy with round glasses and a blue post office outfit walked towards the front desk.

 

“What can I do for you today?” Mark said as he bounced on the top of his feet.

 

“Same as most of the time.” Yukhei handed Mark the envelopes, sealed shut with a wax seal. 

 

“Okay, okay.” Mark took the envelopes and put them on a pile with others, still needing to be sort by the looks of it. Mark walked back to where he came from when Yukhei first entered when he appeared again he held two other envelopes, red colored ones. “Here, these came in today.”

 

“Oh! Thank you.” Yukhei took ahold of the envelopes, but Mark didn’t let go just yet.

 

“So, have you changed your opinion yet?” He asked as he half-glared at his friend.

 

“W-What opinion?” 

 

“Don't act like you forgot.”

 

“No, seriously! Dude, what opinion?” Mark sighed and let go of the envelopes, he adjusted his glasses and looked at Yukhei with a 'really bitch’ stare. If it didn't send chills down Yukhei’s spine, he would be lying to himself.

 

“You probably did forget, because you were drunk. But, you said that if a guy sings that he is a pussy and will never get a girl, or guy.” Yukhei looked taken aback.

 

“I never said that! If a guy sings that it’s totally cool!”

 

“Sure, my dude.” Mark said as he turned around to walk back to his work.

 

“No! You are not going anywhere!” Yukhei raised his voice so Mark stopped walking, “How can I prove it to you that there is nothing wrong with guys singing?”

 

Mark shrugged his shoulders and looked deep in thought before he snapped his fingers and smirked.

 

“Tonight is karaoke night in Black Clover, sing and dance to Single Ladies there.” He grinned after he finished talking.

 

“But how are you going to know if I actually did it?” 

 

“Uhm, you need to let Donghyuck record you on your phone, and then you can send it to me!” Mark’s grin had become eviler than the last one, “And yes, only Donghyuck is allowed to record you.”

 

“Fuck you.” Yukhei growled through his teeth, he turned around and ran out of the post office, leaving a laughing Mark behind.

 

Luckily for Yukhei the bar wasn't that far from the post office, so he could run to there. He barged through the bar doors what felt like the tenth time this past week. It wasn't that busy and Yukhei understood that, because who wants to hear people sing off tune sober.

 

“Donghyuck!!” He yelled once he saw the familiar waiter, the boy flinched at the loudness of Yukhei and almost dropped his tray with empty glasses.

 

“What do you want, Wong?” Donghyuck snapped not appreciating it that Yukhei scared him. Yukhei shoved his phone into Donghyuck's hand, making him nearly drop his tray again. Donghyuck looked at him weirdly, “Why did you give me your phone? You already have my number.”

 

“Yes, I know that and no it's not about that.” Yukhei said hurriedly, “I need you to record me and not ask any questions about it.”

 

“Okay…” Donghyuck trailed off as he walked to the bar to put his tray down, he nodded at Yeri and Seulgi behind the bar.

 

“Yes, thank you!” Yukhei said loudly as sprinted to the stage in the left corner of the bar, he grabbed the mic off the stand and walked to the machine. Once he found the song he looked back into the bar, he saw Donghyuck holding up his phone, they made eye contact and Donghyuck gave him a thumbs up signing that he is recording.

 

“Alright, Mark here it goes. This is for all the single ladies or men in the house!!” Yukhei yelled through the microphone, a few people cheered and then Single Ladies blasted through the speakers.

 

Yukhei sang and danced enthusiastically to the song as if it was a miracle that he could hear it but he heard Donghyuck's laughter loud and clear, it made him put in even more effort.

 

After he was done he put the mic back into its stand and he bowed to the crowd, who were clapping because of his amazing performance, only he sang out of tune a heck of a lot of time. He jumped off the stage and jogged his way back to Donghyuck, who was still holding up his phone, sweat trickled down Yukhei's forehead he reached up and wiped it away.

 

“So, how was it?” Yukhei wiggled his eyebrows, grabbing his phone out of Donghyuck's hands, Donghyuck made a look of disgust and he quickly walked away. Before Yukhei could say something he had come back with a napkin and shoved it in Yukhei face.

 

“You are sweating.” Yukhei chuckled before wiping the sweat off his forehead, he then looked at Donghyuck. When Donghyuck realized why, he answered. “You looked like a fool, but I saw the effort you put into it to do great.” He chuckled before walking away, on his way to collect more empty glasses.

 

Yukhei heard the doors of the bar open and a man yell, “Seulgi! Sweetheart, two beers please!” 

 

“On it, Jaehyun!” Yukhei turned his head and looked at the man, his eyes went wide when he saw who was next to him.

 

“Sicheng?” He muttered to himself, he felt a jab in his side and he spun around, only to see it was Donghyuck. “You gave me a heart attack.”

 

“You get that every time you see me.” He replied sassily, but he quickly recovered. “My shift just ended and I saw you looked a little uncomfortable…?” Donghyuck wasn't sure about it when he said the last word, “So, uh, do you maybe wanna go upstairs?”

 

“Yes.” Yukhei answered a little too quickly, but he was going to stay at the bar anyways because he wanted to spend some more time with Donghyuck before he had to go tomorrow. “I would like that, yes.” He grabbed Donghyuck's hand and pulled him along with him, Donghyuck had enough time to tell a quick good luck to Seulgi, Yeri, and Kibum, who had come to take over his shift.

 

“You do know that Johnny is upstairs, right?” Yukhei nodded as he waited for Donghyuck to open the door that led to the stairs, his hand was rapidly tapping on the side of his thigh. His eyes fixated on the bar doors, he saw them open and a blond man walked out. At the same time he moved to turn his head into their direction, Donghyuck had unlocked the door and opened it.

 

Yukhei pushed him inside and stepped inside quickly after that, shutting the door quickly, he turned around but met with a not so happy Donghyuck, with his arms crossed over his chest.

 

“What in the hell was that?”

 

Yukhei looked at him defeated, “I-I.” He sighed while running his hand through his hair, “I panicked.”

 

“Who was that? Why did you push me?”

 

“That, uh, is Sicheng...I thought I left him behind in my hometown, but apparently not…” Yukhei put his hand on Donghyuck's shoulder, “I’m sorry for pushing you, but I had no other choice, he would've seen us and I am after that it wouldn't end so nicely.”

 

Donghyuck's expression changed from annoyed to sympathetic, “Did he ever hurt you?” He stepped forward in the little space they had between the first step of the stairs and the door, he grabbed ahold of Yukhei's shaking hand, “You don't have to talk about it, it’s fine, you’re safe.” He said in a soft voice, trying to get the tall guy in front of him to look his way, the trembling of his lips, the extreme shaking of his hands and the fast movements of his eyes, made Donghyuck turn their positions and place Yukhei down on the third step of the stairs.

 

“Hey, hey. Buddy, look at me, hey.” Donghyuck tried desperately to make Yukhei look at him, his heart broke at the sight, having enough of it and he didn't want Yukhei to end up having a panic attack, he grabbed his face in both of his hands and made Yukhei face him. “He is not here, you’re safe, want can I to make this stop, Yukhei??” He got no response, “Please, Yukhei.” He begged, he heard him mutter something under his breath.

 

“What?”

 

“H-Hug me.”

 

“Huh?” Donghyuck looked at him bewildered, but when Yukhei pulled him onto his lap he didn't think twice, he wrapped his arms around Yukhei’s neck, he curled up like a cat when they are lying down or sitting on their owner's lap, he nuzzled his nose into Yukhei's neck. He heard him take a deep breath before he wrapped his arms around Donghyuck's waist, his hands still shaking but less than before, he placed his cheek on top of Donghyuck's head and closed his eyes.

 

“Thank you.”

 

“Not a problem, my friend.” They sat there for what felt like hours until Donghyuck got a message. It was from Johnny.

 

“Are you okay with going upstairs?” Donghyuck had moved away from Yukhei's shoulder to look him in the eye. Yukhei pouted but agreed, Donghyuck got off Yukhei so that he could stand up. They headed upstairs and Donghyuck opened the door of the apartment, “I’m home!”

 

He closed the door behind him, he mentioned for Yukhei to follow him, they walked into the living room, “Hey, boys.” Johnny said as he took up half of the couch with the way he was sitting, a bowl of popcorn next to him and a tissue box on the other side, with a teddy bear underneath his arm.

 

“You are going to binge watch Haikyuu, aren't you?” He only had to nod for Donghyuck to roll his eyes, behind him he heard a gasp.

 

“Dude, you cried too?” 

 

“Yes. A whole lot.” 

 

“Me too!” 

 

Donghyuck groaned and turned around, “You are both insufferable.” He walked out of the living room, Yukhei followed.

 

“It’s not like you cried when Hinata and Kageyama did their very first quick!!” Johnny yelled before they could make it up the stairs to the second floor. Donghyuck stopped dead in his tracks, Yukhei behind him began to giggle, Donghyuck glared at him. He continued to walk with Yukhei trailing behind him, on top of the stairs he turned right and then again right, he opened the door to his room.

 

“Do you want to stay over tonight?” Donghyuck shook his head, “Nevermind it’s not even a question, I’m not letting you go home alone.”

 

“If you don't mind?”

 

“Of course I don’t mind, it’s not like you are a total stranger.” Donghyuck said as he rummaged through his clothing drawers, “I’ve gotten to know you better these past weeks because you always come to the bar during my shifts and through the stories Taeyong tells Johnny and Johnny tells them to me.” 

 

“Oh god.” Yukhei laughed, “Also if you are looking for clothes for me, you better could look in Johnny’s drawers.” 

 

“I know that you will never fit in my clothes, I am looking for my own stuff.” He finally fished out a sweater and some shorts, he threw them on the bed beside the window. “You can sit down. Seeing you standing up makes me anxious.” 

 

That was the last thing he said before he walked out of the room, Yukhei pulled the chair next to him out and sat down, biting his lip while looking around. Donghyuck came back into the room with a pillow and a blanket, he picked up his clothes and wanted to walk out of the room again, but Yukhei’s voice stopped him.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“I’m putting this stuff downstairs next to Johnny, so I can sleep on the couch later. Unless you have other plans?”

 

Yukhei scratched the back of his neck, “Well I thought since your bed is big enough, each of us can take a side. If you're comfortable with that though…” Yukhei trailed off, without a word Donghyuck left the room, leaving Yukhei in silence for a few minutes. He poked his head back in and gained the sulking boy's attention.

 

“I’m going to ask Johnny if I can take some clothes out of his closet.” 

 

“Okay.” Yukhei heard Donghyuck walk down the stairs, he took this chance to look around, from the bed to the closet that was wide open, Donghyuck had some taste in fashion only he mostly had black clothing hanging in his closet. Next up was the desk next to the closet that was standing at the end of the bed. A picture frame was stood at the right side of the desk, the rest was filled with notebooks and some little boxes with pens and such in them. Yukhei reached out to grab the picture frame, there were four people on the picture, Yukhei could recognize three of them, Donghyuck, Taeyong, and Johnny. He probably stared way too long at the picture because the next thing he knows is that Donghyuck is leaning over his shoulder.

 

“Awful picture isn’t it?”

 

Yukhei screamed and nearly dropped the picture frame if Donghyuck didn’t grab it in time. Yukhei looked at Donghyuck, who was laughing so loudly that he had to hold onto his sides in pain.

 

“You are mean.”

 

“I-I’m sorry.” Donghyuck calmed down, “But you looked so peaceful.”

 

“So you thought, let’s scare the shit out of him?” Yukhei narrowed his eyes at the shorter boy, who just giggled in response and ran out of the room. Yukhei sighed, “I can’t believe he is twenty.” He muttered to himself as he sat down onto Donghyuck’s bed.

 

Not a second later Donghyuck walked back in with a plain shirt and sweatpants, he threw them at Yukhei who nearly fell over because of the sudden impact. He groaned and took the clothes, Donghyuck told him he could change in the bathroom so that is what he did.

 

“What season do you want to watch?” Donghyuck asked with curiosity laced in his voice, once Yukhei walked back into the room, tying the laces of the sweatpants so they wouldn’t randomly fall down. He flipped his hair out of his face and made eye contact with Donghyuck, who already laid underneath the covers with a tablet in his hands.

 

“Let’s just begin with season one.” Yukhei jumped onto the bed and snuggled underneath the covers, snaking his arms around Donghyuck hugging him like a teddy bear. They watched like that together for the rest of the evening.

 

\--

 

“Little bro!!” Taeyong yelled through the house once he closed the door, he could hear gaming noises coming from upstairs, he walked towards his brother’s room. The door was open but still, Taeyong knocked. “I’m home, Jisungie~”

 

The said boy pauses his game like it was a reflex and turned to look into the direction of his door, his shocked expression changed into a small smile once he saw Taeyong standing in his room leaning on the doorframe. “You are home early, why?”

 

Taeyong scoffed, “I can feel the love.” Which made Jisung pull a face, “Fine, I got something to tell you.” Taeyong pointed to the bean sack that was empty and Jisung nodded, allowing Taeyong to sit on it.

 

“I’m going to be away for some days, I don't know how long.”

 

“Because it depends on how fast you find clues?” Jisung asked quickly before Taeyong could say anything else, Taeyong just nodded in response.

 

“But since I don’t like you sitting alone at home, I am going to call Johnny and ask if you can stay over there until I return.” Taeyong smiled when Jisung’s face lit up at Johnny’s name.

 

“Oh please! I miss Johnny and Donghyuck!” Taeyong ruffled Jisung's hair and stood up.

 

“I’ll try to see what I can do.” When Taeyong nearly stepped out of Jisung's room, he got stopped when he heard Jisung's voice.

 

“So how is the whole Johnny situation going?” Implying about Taeyong's well-known crush, but only well known to Jisung and Donghyuck, 'cause they couldn't mind their own business.

 

“Shut up and play your stupid game.” Taeyong grabbed a shirt that laid on the ground and threw it to Jisung, who couldn't dodge it but he giggled nonetheless. “And clean your room, my cleaning senses are working overtime just by looking at this mess.” With that Taeyong finally walked out of the room and back downstairs, he grabbed the phone out of its holder and dialed the phone number of Johnny's house phone.

 

He sat down on the couch and let the line ring, and ring, and ring, no one picked up the phone so he called again, this time after the second ring someone answered.

 

“Hello, Lee Seo, residents.” A deep voice sounded through the phone but Taeyong knew it wasn't Johnny and it certainly couldn't be Donghyuck, but the voice sounded familiar so he made a guess.

 

“Yukhei??” He said with a hint of surprise in his voice, he could hear a gasp coming from the other side of the phone.

 

“Taeyong?!”

 

“What are you doing there? Do you already have everything packed?” Taeyong could hear hushed panicked voices followed by a thud.

 

“Taeyong!! Hello, hi!” Donghyuck’s voice broke through the silence on the other side of the line.

 

“Donghyuck, why is Yukhei at yours?”

 

“What?? What are you talking about? He is not here.” Taeyong could hear stairs creak.

 

“I literally had him on the phone just a second ago.” He signed, he looked up and saw Jisung walking into the living room, he gave Taeyong a cup of tea and then he disappeared again. “Just tell me he is resting.”

 

“He is, don’t worry.” Donghyuck let the words slip passed his mouth, “Shit.”

 

“Aha! I got you to admit.” 

 

“Fuck you! Here is Johnny.”

 

“H-How do you know?” Taeyong had gotten flustered only by hearing the man’s name.

 

“Well it’s not like you are going to talk to me and I have a guest over so I can’t talk anyway. Again, here's Johnny.” There was some rustling coming out of the phone, Taeyong knew that Donghyuck was giving the phone to Johnny.

 

“Hello?” He could hear Johnny’s voice, it sounded like he had been crying.

 

“Are you watching something sad or are you actually crying and I called at the wrong moment.”

 

“Taeyong! No, no. I’m just watching something.” Johnny coughed, “What’s up?”

 

“Well, I have a favor to ask of you.”

 

“Oh, god. What is it this time.” Johnny replied, fearing for his life.

 

“It’s nothing bad!” Taeyong sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “It’s just that I am going away because of work so I won’t be home for a few days, and even though Jisung is old enough to stay home alone, I don’t really trust it.”

 

“Not trusting, like the house is going to be destroyed or he is not going to take care of himself?”

 

“Not going to take care of himself, he sometimes doesn’t even eat because he forgot the time.” Taeyong groaned as he let himself fall back on the couch. “Can he stay with you guys until I’m back?”

 

“Of course! We love him and miss him a lot, especially Donghyuck misses him.” Taeyong laughed at that, the last time Jisung had seen them was months ago when they were on vacation together, something they do every year.

 

“Who am I missing?” Taeyong could hear Donghyuck’s voice softly in the background, Johnny and Donghyuck held a quick conversation, but it was kind of muted. “Jisung!! My baby! I’m going to smooch his cheeks.”

 

“Okay, alright. Go back upstairs to your love.” Johnny joked, he could hear a ‘I hate you’ followed by the sound of someone walking up the stairs. “So, Donghyuck is looking forward to it.”

 

Taeyong laughed at the same time as Johnny did, “So I heard.”

 

The two of them talked a little longer until they had to say goodbye. In the meantime, Jisung had gotten downstairs and was standing up to get something to drink.

 

“Jisung.” Taeyong’s voice made the younger stop in his tracks, “You can stay over at Johnny’s.” Jisung cheered as he walked into the kitchen and coming back with a glass of water. “Now come here and give me cuddles.” 

 

“I’m eighteen, Taeyong!” Jisung whined, still obeying and lying down on top of Taeyong, his head on his chest and Taeyong running his fingers softly through Jisung’s hair.

 

“I love you, I won’t let anything hurt you, okay?”

 

“Okay.” Jisung sighed, “I love you too.”

 

They stayed like that the rest of the night until it was time to go to sleep, but on the way towards the stairs, Taeyong realized something.

 

“Shit! I forgot to pack my things!”


	3. Haunted Hotel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First mission out of town

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the long wait everyone! i've just had a writers block for this story but finally i got a new chapter done!  
> i apologize in advance because english is not my first language!  
> i hope you enjoy

 

“Alright, you be on your best behaviour.” 

 

“Yes mom, I will.” Jisung replied, rolling his eyes. They were standing in the living room of Johnny's apartment, Taeyong nearly got tears in his eyes. “Can you not be so dramatic?”

 

“I’m just going to miss you.” Some tears actually did escape Taeyong's eyes and were rolling freely down his cheeks, Jisung groaned at the same time as Donghyuck did. Jisung couldn't bare the sight of his brother like that so he stood up from his place on couch armrest and walked up to Taeyong to wrap his arms around his waist and bury his nose into Taeyong's neck.

 

He could hear Taeyong chuckle and made him feel relieved, after a few seconds he let go. “I’m going to miss you too, lots.”

 

Taeyong said goodbye to Donghyuck with a hug and a kiss on his forehead, he got a big bear hug from Johnny, who kissed the top of his head **.** “Stay safe.” Was what Johnny said, something so simple that it could haunt his mind for days.

 

He went back to the minivan he had borrowed from work, it was an undercover van, so there were no logos or something that would spark 'this is a police van’. With this they had enough room to put in everything they needed, equipment was already put away in some secret hiding places, all in all, this van looked completely normal.

 

He picked up Ten, then Yuta and lastly Yukhei, who was still putting clothes and other things in bags, when they arrived. 

 

“I’m nearly done, I swear!” Yukhei ran from the bathroom into his own room and back, it was honestly funny to see.

 

“He is a mess.” Ten shook his head as Yuta looked around, “What are you trying to find? Secrets?”

 

“Yes, maybe.”

 

“Are you kidding me? The guy is like an open book!” Ten argued, holding up his arm in the direction of the hallway that led to Yukhei's room.

 

“I heard that!” Yukhei shouted from his room, Taeyong stood with his head in his hands, not knowing what he had started. A sudden thud made all their heads snap towards the direction of Yukhei's room.

 

“Yukhei?” Yuta called out, “Are you okay?” 

 

With no reaction they rushed into the boy's room, he laid sprawled out on his bed with a bag at his feet, better said on his feet.

 

“I’m fine.” Yukhei groaned, “Just got a little dizzy.” He widened his eyes before he sat up straight.

 

“Holy shit, dude!” Ten screeched like a bird, as he pointed to Yukhei’s neck, “Is that a hickey?”

 

Taeyong’s eyes went wide as Yukhei’s hand flew up to cover up the mark on his neck, he got scared from Taeyong’s deadly gaze.

 

“No! It’s not!” Yukhei tried to sound normal, but ‘cause of Taeyong's stare he sounded really nervous. Taeyong stepped closer to the younger still seated on the bed, he bends forward and pointed his finger at Yukhei's chest.

 

“You better not have done anything to him. He is like a second brother to me.” He whispered, Yukhei could swear his words were laced with poison. Yukhei quickly took off his hands from the wound and let everyone see it up close.

 

“It was a mosquito bite, but it itched so much that I scratched it a little bit open. So from where you were standing, it kind of looks like a hickey, but I promise you it’s not.”

 

“Then why did you sound so nervous when you denied it?” Yuta questioned.

 

“N-No reason, now shut up.” Yukhei stood up and lifted the bag from his feet, he carried the bag outside of the room and put it down on the couch, before walking back into the room to zip up his suitcase and rolling it into the living room. The other three following him.

 

They finally loaded Yukhei’s luggage into the van, “Let’s go!” All four of them opened the car doors and sat down, Yuta drove with Taeyong in the passenger seat and Ten sat in the back seat together with Yukhei.

 

After a long period of time of sitting in a car listening to the radio, they finally arrived at their destination. “The Haunted Hotel.” Yukhei read as he stepped out of the car, he looked amazed at the flickering letters. “This place sure does scream ‘creepy’.” He deadpanned, making Yuta chuckle as he was unloading the van.

 

“Just help with this stuff, you dumb.” Ten huffed as he pulled out Yukhei’s suitcase, “Seriously?! What did you put in here? Dumbbells?”

 

“No! I would never put those in a suitcase.” Yukhei scoffed as he walked over and pulled his suitcase out of Ten’s hand, picking it up with ease and placing it on the ground.

 

Taeyong sighed as he watched the three teammates fight with each other, he shook his head and walked towards the door of the hotel. While the other three were unloading the van, he went to sign them in. Taeyong got directions and the keys to the four rooms that they were going to stay in. Once the other three had carried all the luggage into the lobby that was when Taeyong joined them again.

 

“Alright I have the keys, so who wants which room?” Taeyong held the keys in his hands, they had a little keychain too, it told which room belonged to which key.

 

“We got ‘Haunted dolls’.” Taeyong read out loud, Ten’s eyes lit up and immediately stepped forward.

 

“That will be my room!”

 

“Alright, next. ‘Elm Street’.” That one went to Yukhei.

 

“Next is your choice Yuta, ‘Carrie’ or ‘Insidious’.”

 

“I’ll go for the Carrie room.” Yuta took the key in his hand, “Do you think a bucket of blood will be dumped onto my head if I enter the room?” Yuta questioned, it earned a laugh from Yukhei.

 

“You do know that we are here for an investigation and not for joking around.” Taeyong said coldly, taking his luggage and walked into the direction of his room.

 

“What’s up with him?” Ten asked looking at Yuta, who shrugged his shoulders and also went to his room. Ten looked at Yukhei before following Yuta to the second floor, Taeyong and Yukhei would be staying on the third floor of the hotel.

 

Yukhei was still standing in the lobby, his gaze went over the entire room before landing on the person behind the front desk. He doesn’t know why but they gave off an uneasy feeling, the way they looked back at Yukhei with a certain longing made him pick up his luggage and walk to his room.

 

Yukhei began to unpack and opened the closet to hang up some clothes, but he got startled by a hand with claws and creepy laughter. “Dammit, Freddy.” Yukhei muttered underneath his breath, he pushed the hand back into the closet and closed the door, throwing his clothes back into his suitcase. At that exact moment, someone knocked on the door.

 

“Yes?” Yukhei said as he opened the door, he looked down and saw Taeyong.

 

“We are going into the town, maybe find some clues there.” Taeyong turned around to walk away but looked at Yukhei once again, “And to not draw any suspicion upon us. It’s still an undercover mission.”

 

“Right!” Yukhei locked the door to his room and walked after Taeyong to the second floor, knocking on Yuta's door while Taeyong knocked on Ten’s. With everyone out of their room they walked to the lobby and passed by the front desk, they headed out of the hotel like a bunch of friends being on vacation together, hollering with laughter and just being loud.

 

“Do you have your badges with you?” Taeyong asked once they were outside, Yuta's eyes widened and he shook his head.

 

“I thought we were undercover?” 

 

“We are but you can't leave it in the hotel, what if they search through your luggage while they are there to clean and find your badge?” Taeyong reasoned, Yuta nodded and quickly went back into the hotel.

 

“Nice safe!” Ten said as he smacked Taeyong's back, making the other stumble forward a bit.

 

“Where are we going to look first?” Yukhei asked curiously. 

 

“The cafe, it’s where the most outsiders go.” Taeyong said, looking through his phone, “We can also split up in duo's, one can go to the cafe and the other can go to the library.”

 

“The library? Really? What can we find there?” Ten questioned skeptically.

 

“A friend of one of the missing persons said they went to the library but didn't come back until very late at night, and that after that they were acting a bit out of it.” Taeyong scrolled through his phone again, “They also said that their friend wanted them to go ahead and that they would spend an extra day here.” Taeyong looked up from his phone as the doors of the hotel creaked open, “But they never made it back.”

 

Yuta popped out of the hotel and hurried down the steps to join the group again, he looked back several times making the rest of the group look at him in confusion. “This hotel gives me the creeps.” He said as he walked passed them and onto the path that led to the way into the town.

 

“Did something weird happen?” 

 

“No, well, kinda?” He looked deep in thought, “We just got here and they were already in your room with cleaning supplies.” Yuta looked at Ten with his brows furrowed. “It doesn't make any sense, they cleaned it before we got there.”

 

“Indeed weird.” Taeyong placed a hand on his chin, “Maybe they do go through our luggage.” That was the only thing he could come up with.

 

“But why?” Ten whined, not wanting strangers to go through the stuff he brought, “Are we that suspicious already?”

 

“I think it's just to know, what kind of people they are dealing with.” Yukhei spoke up after staying silent for a little while, “Think about it, if the place is really connected with the disappearances, maybe they take out the people that look weaker through their luggage?”

 

The three looked at him weirdly, “How can you see if a person is weak through their luggage?” Ten joked, “It doesn't make sense.” He chuckled after that, not taking Yukhei seriously.

 

“Nevermind then.” Yukhei expression changed to a serious one, Taeyong cleared his throat before something else could happen.

 

“Let's divide into duo’s, Yukhei and Yuta, you two go to the cafe.” Both of them perked up at that and high-fived, “Ten, you’re with me. We are going to the library.” Ten groaned but Taeyong dismissed it. 

 

They parted ways to look for the places where they needed to go, the cafe was easy to find for Yukhei and Yuta, but Taeyong and Ten were having more difficulty with finding the library.

 

They asked multiple people but they all looked at them with a shocked expression and left with a 'don’t go there’, which was all the more reason that they needed to take a look there.

 

“How can a library be this scary that people run away every time we ask about it!” Ten groaned, “I just want to read some books.” He quickly added afterwards because people passed by them and they had to look like tourists. Once they were alone again, wondering the streets in search of this damned library, a thought went through Ten’s head.

 

“What if they search the car too?” He blurted out.

 

“They won’t find it, don’t worry.” Taeyong reassured his teammate. Taeyong’s eyes scanned over the area they walked into, it looked like one of the town’s squares. 

 

“No one is here.” Ten noticed, all the buildings looked closed and old, kind of like a ghost town. It sends chills down Ten’s spine, making him grab Taeyong sleeve.

 

“I think that’s the library.” Taeyong pointed to a pretty tall building, one that looked very new to the rest of the surrounding buildings, they crossed the town’s square and went to what Taeyong thought to be the library. They stood in front of the gigantic doors, they looked at each other and questioned if they should actually go inside.

 

“Let’s go around the building and then go inside.” Taeyong suggested and Ten quickly agreed, they could’ve split up but in the sake of the case, they didn’t. Taeyong met Ten again about three quarters around the building, he was looking down at something.

 

“What did you find?” Taeyong whispered as he got to Ten’s side.

 

“Stairs.” He kneeled down and tried to look through the window that was located halfway down the stairs. 

 

“Can you see anything?” Taeyong asked when Ten stood back up, he shook his head.

 

“No, I think something is in front of the window, like blocking it off…”

 

“Well it is a bit strange for a library to have a basement, but let’s look inside.” Taeyong grabbed Ten’s arm before he could walk away, Ten looked at his friend with a confused expression, “If you see or feel anything that makes you uneasy then we leave, okay?”

 

“Okay.” Ten nodded, Taeyong sighed as he let Ten’s arm go and together they walked back to the entrance of the library and pushed the doors open. Taeyong let out a breath that he didn’t know he was holding, the library looked old, the books ranged from various colors and sizes, lights were flickering as if they needed to be on at this time of the day. They walked further inside both on edge and ready to run if something happened. 

 

They walked past a row of bookshelves, but Ten stopped and looked through a gap that the books had created. He hissed at Taeyong not knowing a better way to gain the other’s attention, Taeyong walked back to Ten’s side. “What?”

 

Ten shushed him and pointed at the gap between the books, Ten stepped aside so Taeyong could look through it, he looked back at Ten with wide eyes.

 

“That’s it.” Taeyong whispered before he pushed Ten towards the exit, they hurried their pace but got stopped by a woman standing in front of the doors, she smiled sweetly and asked them to help her set some books on the top shelves. Taeyong hesitated to reach out to grab a book, but Ten grabbed the cart where the books were laid on top of with a smile and drove it to the bookshelf they needed to be placed in.

 

Taeyong hurried over and stood beside Ten on the little stairs so that he could reach the top shelf, “What are you doing?” Taeyong said in a hushed voice, “We need to leave, now.” His tone only got lower as he finished his sentence.

 

“We kinda looked suspicious…so I thought we do this and then we leave.” But fate decided to work otherwise as the thing they saw earlier let out a noise and a bloody hand grabbed a part of the bookshelf, letting itself gain balance. 

 

“Fuck.”

 

\--

 

“I’m bored!!” Yuta yelled out as they left the cafe, they found nothing that sparked out odd or unusual for a cafe.

 

“We could look around some more?” Yukhei suggested, “Maybe it’s not the cafe itself but something around it?” Yuta slapped Yukhei’s back.

 

“You’re a genius!” They walked into a narrow street with little shops and houses on each side of the road. Yuta looked at the left side while Yukhei scanned the right side, clothing store after tourist shop after another clothing store, they got tired of looking.

 

“There is nothing here, Yukhei..” Yuta sighed as he ran a hand through his hair.

 

“But there has to be...I feel it.” Yukhei looked around, spinning in a circle but nothing. He looked annoyed when his gaze fell back on Yuta. “I don’t want to return with nothing.”

 

Yuta huffed out a breath, “Look, Yukhei.” He began, he put a hand on Yukhei’s tensed shoulder, “Sometimes you come back from an investigation with nothing, it happens.” Yuta patted Yukhei’s shoulder before letting his arm fall back by his side, “And yes, then you are going to be upset and all that…” Yuta trailed off but then he leaped forward and grabbed Yukhei by the shoulders again, shaking him slightly, “But!”

 

Yuta said loudly, seeing how he startled the taller male, he let his arms fall to his side again before crossing them over his chest and popping out his hip, “By finding nothing you still find something.”

 

Yukhei’s shocked expression changed to a confused one, “I don’t get that…”

 

“Well...if we find nothing here, then we know we have to look elsewhere, so you do find that you need to look somewhere else.”

 

“Oh!”

 

“Does that make sense?” Yuta asked himself, but Yukhei just answered it with nodding. Suddenly the amused expression on Yuta’s face changed to a serious one, his eyes were following something or rather someone. Yukhei wanted to turn around and look at it too but Yuta stopped him. “No, wait.”

 

“What is happening?”

 

“I just saw someone walk out of an alley with a wooden stake and a silver cross with sharp edges.

 

“What?” Yuta’s gaze met Yukhei’s as the woman was finally out of sight, “I don’t know but let’s look in that alley, maybe we won’t come back empty handed.”

 

“Okay.” They walked towards the alley and it was rather narrow so Yukhei pushed Yuta in front of him, the idea of being able to protect Yuta when things go wrong. A red neon sign hung above a black door, “ Daemonium.” Yuta read out loud, he turned back to look at Yukhei, “What does that mean?” He looked confused at the cold and serious expression Yukhei held on his face.

 

“It means demon in Latin.”

 

\--

 

On the other side of the library from where Taeyong and Ten stood, there was a person trying to find its balance, blood dripping from its shoulder with something sticking out of it from behind. Ten’s eyes were wide while Taeyong’s were narrowed.

 

“What the fuck.”

 

“That’s not supposed to be in a library.” Taeyong’s eyes scanned the library ground but he couldn’t catch sight of the woman that was with them earlier.

 

“I said we should’ve left and not do this book work.” The book slipped out of Taeyong’s hand and hit the ground with a loud thud, both of them cursed underneath their breath. When they looked back at the place where the person was hanging on the bookshelf for dear life, they were already looking at their place. 

 

“Help me.” The person croaked out, their hair soaked red because of laying down in their own pool of blood. Taeyong and Ten looked at each other, the woman from earlier suddenly walked to the person.

 

Both of them took this as a chance to hurry to the door, Taeyong opened the door and Ten ran out first, Taeyong wanted to follow but something hit his shoe. He looked down and at his foot laid a silver cross with sharp edges, without hesitation Taeyong picked it up with his sleeve over his hand and left the library. A scream rang through the air not one moment later, but all Taeyong and Ten could do was run away.

 

“Here!” Ten gave Taeyong a plastic bag out of nowhere, he had ripped it off from a stand outside by a fruit and vegetable shop, Taeyong grabbed it as they were slowing down their pace a little. He placed the object in the bag and like that they hurried back to their meeting point, the cafe.

 

\--

 

“What in the actual fuck is this…” Yuta said, walking through the garlic on strings. They were in the shop and it screamed fake in the beginning, but now they were beginning to doubt it. Wooden stakes in various sizes were displayed on the wall, as well as the silver crosses with sharp edges, but there were a lot more questionable things. Like salt, holy water, Bibles and spray cans with garlic water, guns with silver bullets, Wolfsbane. 

 

“Maybe a shop for protection from the supernatural?” Yuta scoffed before dismissing the idea, not believing in that one word.

 

“Would that be actual silver?” Yuta picked up one of the crosses, examining the object, “Should we take it with us?”

 

“So we can look if this shop is just a fake or not?”

 

“It’s obviously fake, but for like overpricing?”

 

“But we are not here for that kind of task, Yuta.” Yukhei took the cross out of Yuta’s hand and wanted to place it back on the shelf when a guy clapped in his hands and walked their way.

 

“Gentlemen! How can I help you today?” The man gave off a creepy vibe and Yukhei didn’t like it, he wanted to say that they were just leaving before Yuta took the cross out of Yukhei’s hands again.

 

“We would like to buy this one please.” Yuta smiled at the man, whose eyes shone like diamonds. The man smiled as he took the cross in his own hands, he missed a tooth and the rest were yellow, also close to falling out.

 

Yuta walked with the man to the cash register to pay for the cross, while Yukhei waited impatiently near the door. The door opened with a creak and a woman walked through it into the shop, she was muttering things with a distant look in her eyes. Yukhei tried his best not to stare at her but he found her so weird and suspicious, they were there to note anything that is suspicious. 

 

The woman turned around in an inhuman like speed and her almost dead eyes looked straight into Yukhei’s, it felt like she was looking at his soul, it sent shivers down his spine. She walked towards him and he didn't know what to do, it was like he was stuck in his place. 

 

“Daemonium!” She said loudly as she grabbed him by the underarms, “They are everywhere and nowhere.” She stepped on her toes and pulled a little on Yukhei's underarms making him bend over a little, “Watch out for the shadow ones.”

 

She pulled away quickly and moved back to one of the shelves pretending to look at the stuff that was laying on it. Yukhei turned back to look at Yuta walking towards him, the man from earlier following behind.

 

“Let's go.” Yukhei grabbed Yuta by the arm, before pulling him out of the creepy shop, Yuta winced at the grip Yukhei had on his arm.

 

“Uh, Yukhei…” The boy in front of him hummed, “Can you, uh, maybe let go of my arm? You are kind of hurting me…” Yukhei immediately let go at the same time they got out of the alley, he turned around quickly and looked at Yuta with an apologetic expression.

 

“Sorry, I just really didn't like it in there, nor do I like it in this town.”

 

“Is there something you aren't telling us?” Yuta asked trying to catch up with the boy that suddenly started walking again, “We are your teammates now, better-said friends, you can tell us you know that, right?” He tugged at Yukhei's shirt trying to get the taller’s attention, but Yukhei kept looking in front of him and only nodded. Yuta sighed and gave up, walking beside his teammate in silence.

 

“I’ll tell you all later.” Was the only thing Yukhei muttered out before taking out his phone and dialing Taeyong's number, telling him they were on their way back to the meeting point.

 

\--

 

“Have you updated Doyoung yet?” Ten asked out of curiosity, he knew that the captain gave orders to keep him updated every two hours, preferably by calling but in difficult situations, it was fine just to text that they were still together with four people.

 

“Not yet, but I’ll text him once we get to the cafe.”

 

“Saying what exactly?” 

 

“That we found certain things, but that we still need to discuss stuff before calling in for detailed information.” They rounded the corner and they could hear the music being blasted from the cafe.

 

Taeyong took out his phone and texted Doyoung, it may not be professional but it definitely doesn't look suspicious. Ten was on the lookout for the other two, a few moments later he spotted them walking into the street coming out of an alley. 

 

“They have a bag with them.” Ten told Taeyong, who looked up from his phone confused.

 

“What’s in the bag?” Ten and Yuta said in union when they got closer to each other. “I asked first.” They both said at the same time again, Taeyong shot them a look and they quit bickering.

 

“Let's go back to the hotel and go to the least creepy room of the four, then we talk about what is in the bag.”

 

“Okay, so whose room is the least scary?” Yuta asked, looking around their little square formed group. 

 

“Definitely not mine.” Ten put his hands up in surrender, “It’s filled with creepy dolls and their dead looking eyes. I regret my choice of room.” He said after shaking his body slightly as if a shiver went through his whole body. 

 

“I think mine is the least scary.” Yukhei spoke up after being quiet for quite some time. “Just don't open the closet and then you’re good to go.”

 

“Okay then, let’s go back.”

 

\--

 

“I am bored!” Donghyuck groaned out, he had a few days off from work so that he could stay at home, care for things but mostly care for Jisung, even though Donghyuck still could’ve gone to work since it is literally downstairs. But Johnny insisted in giving him a few days off.

 

“How can you be bored when you are nearly squishing me to death while watching Tangled.” Jisung huffed out, scrolling through his phone before closing the app he was scrolling through and opening his texting app. He refreshed it but nothing new, he sighed. Donghyuck stopped running his hand through Jisung’s hair and looked down on him, “You okay there buddy?”

 

“No.” Jisung grumbled, Donghyuck let him sit up while he did the same thing, they both sat cross-legged on the couch. Jisung waved the phone in his hand, “I’ve sent multiple messages to Taeyong, but he is not responding.”

 

“Oh sweetie, he is probably just busy…” Donghyuck caressed Jisung’s nape, playing with the baby hair’s on the back of his head.

 

“I know that.” Jisung scoffed, not pushing Donghyuck’s hand away like Donghyuck expected him to do, “But I am worried.”

 

Donghyuck didn’t know what to do when Jisung suddenly leaned forward and rested against his chest, the boy wrapped himself around Donghyuck and made them fall back into the position they were before. The movie still playing in the background, “I have a bad feeling about this, Hyuck.” Jisung looked up at Donghyuck and the amount of worry in them made Donghyuck himself worry about this trip they were on.

 

“Excuse me for one minute, I need to get something from downstairs.” Donghyuck said, feeling guilty because he would have to leave a sad and worrying Jisung behind. He walked down the stairs and went into the bar, he ignored Johnny’s questionable look and walked into the back. He took out his phone and dialed his number.

 

“You better pick up.”

 

\--

 

Taeyong closed the door behind him with a sigh, “So let me get this right.”

 

He turned around and grabbed both of the crosses in his gloved hands, one of them was newly bought and the other was stained with blood. “You bought this one in a shop that is full of stuff against the supernatural?”

 

“Yes.” Yuta said, “But that is super ridiculous, isn’t it?” Taeyong shared a look with Yukhei and put the crosses down again. 

 

“Maybe it isn’t.”

 

“What do you mean?” Ten asked, “We witnessed a murder happening in the library and you are going to play this off as something supernatural??” He was standing at this point, “We should be informing Doyoung at the moment and get the hell out of here. That woman is clearly the reason people go missing here, they meet the sharp edges of these crosses, case solved.” 

 

“Then explain to me why, in the middle of our town, two people got murdered, better-said.” Taeyong paused to step closer to Ten, “Torn to shreds, barely leaving parts of their body intact. Do you think one of these crosses could’ve done that too? Or maybe it was a wild animal?”

 

“Taeyong.” Yuta said calmly, grabbing the team leader’s tense shoulder, “Calm down.” He said once Taeyong looked at him.

 

Taeyong glanced at Yukhei again, he was fiddling with his fingers, it looked like he wanted to say something. “What is it?” Taeyong spoke up, the boy’s head shot up and he looked around the room with wide eyes.

 

“Oh, uh, do you still remember that day I kind of barged into Johnny’s apartment just to talk to you about something?” Yukhei stood up when Taeyong nodded, he had relaxed a little and Ten together with Yuta sat down again, not saying a word just following Yukhei with their eyes as the boy walked to his bed. He went down on his knees and grabbed his bag from underneath the bed, he opened it and picked out some files from it.

 

“I brought those files with me…” He handed them over to Yuta and Ten, so that they could look through it.

 

“Wait but didn’t you guys already went through them?” Taeyong asked and it made Yuta and Ten look up from the papers. They shook their heads.

 

“When did these come in?”

 

“About a few weeks ago.” Yukhei admitted, “I looked over them with Doyoung, because none of you were at the station, he told me to go to you Taeyong. After that, I was told to keep working on it and I should try to find something on it, it was the whole reason I was away for some time.”

 

“Doyoung basically send you on a private mission? Okay, I see how it is.” Taeyong said, “But did you find anything? Like maybe there was something wrong with the DNA?”

 

“Yeah, it says here that it matches with nothing that we know exists in this world.” Ten says, “But that would be impossible, something must’ve gone wrong.”

 

The three looked at Yukhei with hopeful eyes but the look they got back sent chills down their spines. Yukhei threw the rest of the files onto the ground, papers flying out and mixing with each other, they were results of different kinds of tests. “We tried everything we could, we ended up with no matches at every test.”

 

It became silent in the room, so silent that you could hear a pin drop near the hotel entrance.

 

“I don’t think that what we are dealing with, is human nor an animal.” Yukhei started, “And looking at that shop in this town makes me question it, even more, something is clearly going on and it is not something natural like a serial killer on its killing spree.” He began to pick up the papers he threw onto the ground a few moments earlier, “I didn’t tell you this, but the name of the shop was Daemonium, while you,” Yukhei stopped with what he was doing and looked at Yuta before continuing, “Were paying for that cross a woman came in and she was muttering some words. It sounds normal at first but then when I looked at her, she had this crazed look in her eyes, she met my gaze and grabbed my arms pulling me down so I could hear her.”

 

Yukhei was now standing again and had put the files on the bed, “She said; Daemonium! They are everywhere and nowhere, look out for the shadow ones.” He looked around the room and met confused gazes, he sighed and sat down on the bed next to the files. “Daemonium means demon in Latin.” His voice was full of dread, “I think, I don’t have evidence, but I think we may be dealing with demons.”

 

The idea sounded crazy in everyone's ear, “You may have a point.” Ten blurted out, everyone looked at him, not believing those words just came out of Ten’s mouth, he was the most skeptical person of the four but he was willing to believe Yukhei’s theory. “I mean, demons can come in all shapes or forms, aggressive or passive, as animals or as humans. They are everywhere and nowhere at the same time.”

 

Ten left everyone speechless, “Also I found this in the library and on the front desk of the hotel.” He held up two flyers, both advertising the same thing. “I think it's the shop you were talking about.”

 

Yuta and Yukhei both nodded, “But why would they advertise that?”

 

“I have no idea.”

 

Taeyong sighed and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, “Well, let's leave that for tomorrow.” He grabbed the crosses and put them back in the bags, “We’ll lay low tomorrow, take it as a day off or something…” Taeyong opened Yukhei’s closet and before Yukhei could warn the man, the hand and the evil laughter shot out, making Taeyong fall onto the ground from shock.

 

The three tried their hardest to not burst out in laughter at that exact moment, it failed and they began laughing, Taeyong himself chuckled tiredly and put the bags in the corner of Yukhei's closet. He stood up again but the arm stuck out so he wouldn't be able to close the closet, an arm reached over his shoulder and pushed the arm back into the closet with ease, Taeyong looked back and Yukhei stood there with one of the stupidest grins Taeyong had ever seen.

 

“Say goodnight to Freddy before you close it.” He said before walking back and letting himself fall on the bed, Ten and Yuta took that as their cue to head to bed, but Taeyong stopped them by saying something else, “You guys.”

 

Taeyong began, he shut the closet door and turned around to face his team, “I don’t what this may lead to or how big this case will become, but please promise me that you’ll be careful.” He thought that the situation had become an emotional one, but that thought shattered quickly.

 

“Who do you think we are? Some dumb idiot?” Ten said with his hand on his hip.

 

“Well…” Taeyong tilted his head to the side as he thought back to the happenings in the library.

 

“Nevermind, hold that thought.” Ten raised his hand as a stop sign for Taeyong not to continue, he muttered a ‘goodnight’ and a ‘you stay safe too’ before walking out the door, Yuta quickly followed him saying the same thing and closing the door behind him.

 

“Alright then.” Taeyong clapped in his hands, he turned his head back to look at Yukhei who was now sprawled on the bed and asleep. He really just wanted to leave him asleep but the boy was still wearing his clothes and shoes, so he wasn’t having any of it. “Yukhei!”

 

The boy awoke in a shock, “What! Who is in trouble?!” He looked around the room, his gaze fixated on Taeyong who looked at him with a fond yet disappointment expression.

 

“You fell asleep with your clothes on.” Taeyong said, “Change first and then sleep.”

 

“Oh.” Yukhei looked down and saw indeed the clothes he had been wearing all day still clinging to his body. “Right, I kinda forgot.” He scratched his head as he got off the bed, he took off his shoes and said goodnight to Taeyong, who walked through his door shutting it behind him, leaving Yukhei alone.

 

Taeyong sighed as he took his phone out of his pocket and called Doyoung, he opened the door to his own room, it was pretty easy to find ‘cause his door is the only one that is bright red. He walked into his room and heard the call being picked up.

 

“Doyoung!”

 

“Detective Lee, finally.” Taeyong could hear the frustration in Doyoung’s voice, “I said update every two hours, do you know how worried I got when you haven’t called in four hours!!”

 

“Yes, sir. It won’t happen again, Captain.”

 

“It sure as hell won’t or I’m sending you right back home, Taeyong.”

 

“Dropping the work names, eh?” Taeyong smirked as he heard Doyoung curse underneath his breath.

 

“Just give me the updates, you brat.”

 

“Fine, fine.” Taeyong looked through the window at the front of the hotel, “Well the town certainly gives off a creepy vibe. The hotel staff is sketchy and Ten and I went to the library because one of the reports said that someone began acting weird after visiting it.”

 

“What did you find? Some old dusty books?” Doyoung sounded as if he wanted to move on to the next topic.

 

“No, well I mean they were pretty old.” Taeyong could hear Doyoung cough through the phone, signaling him to get back on track, “But we witnessed someone getting stabbed.”

 

“Oh? Have you arrested the person?”

 

“Not our ground, not our place to do so. But we do have evidence that can help us identify the victim, maybe it’s one of our missing people.” Taeyong sighed as he ran his hand through his hair, “Also Yuta and Yukhei went to the cafe, like the popular one but they didn’t find anything suspicious there.”

 

“Alright, anything else that I have to know about?”

 

“Yes, a lot more.”

 

“Okay, send that over email to me tomorrow then, it’s late and you also need to get enough sleep.”

 

“Right, okay.” Taeyong nodded while biting on his nails, a habit that he still hasn’t gotten rid off.

 

“Taeyong.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Be careful.” Doyoung’s voice was dead serious, Taeyong could see the man’s face in front of him and he shivered at the thought.

 

“I will, Doyoung.”

 

“Good, now rest.”

 

“Good night.”

 

“Good night.”

 

Taeyong ended the call and got himself ready for bed, once he was done he closed the curtains and turned off the light before crawling into the bed. He looked through his phone one last time and saw that he had a few missed calls from Donghyuck. Worry shot through him so he sends a quick text to Donghyuck that he will call him in the morning since it’s late and that he should be asleep by now. He put his phone on his nightstand and turned around to lay on his back. He sighed as he put his hand on his forehead, “I hope that I can get some sleep.”

 


	4. It Begins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of things happen for a reason, the truth is revealing itself little by little, slowly but surely, is it the beginning or the end?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey hello! so sorry for the long wait, but i didn't have a lot of time nor motivation or inspiration...
> 
> this chapter is basically two in one because it is longer than the others, i thought that would be a good thing to do since i made you all wait so long hehe
> 
> the chapter is still unedited cause i wanted to get it up as soon as i finished it, so if there are any major mistakes i am sorry i'll work them out as soon as possible
> 
> english is not my first language so i apologize beforehand for any grammar or spelling mistakes!

The sound of water running echoed in Taeyong’s hotel room, the window was open and a light breeze made its way into the room. Taeyong however laid in his bed sound asleep. The creaking of wood could be heard from the hallway, followed by the banging of a door it was so loud that it made Taeyong shot up from his place on the bed.

 

The sound of water running stopped, the breeze went away but the knocking continued. Taeyong got out of bed and slipped his feet into his flip flops, he went to the door and opened it carefully. In front of the room slightly across from him was a little girl banging her fist against the door, Taeyong looked at the room number and he knew that the key to that room was still hanging by the front desk.  _ Nobody would be in that room, so why is that girl knocking? _ He thought,  _ and why is it so loud?  _

 

Taeyong is surprised that no one else on the floor had woken up to check who was making all that noise. Being so deep in thought he hadn’t noticed that the girl was now looking at him through the crack of the door, he made to look into the hallway. Her stare was blank and her skin was as white as snow, it scared Taeyong so he closed the door and put his back against it. A few seconds later soft rapid knocking was heard on his door, the girl was sobbing and scared. 

 

Taeyong was hesitating to open the door, still terrified of what he saw earlier. But something in him told him to open that door, so he did. Immediately after he did two small arms wrapped around his waist and the girl buried her head in his stomach, he tensed up at the sudden change of color in the girl's skin.

 

“Mommy, daddy!” The girl cried out, hesitation coursed through Taeyong veins as he crouched down in front of the girl, prying her off of him so that he could look at her.

 

“What's wrong, little girl?” Taeyong asked her in the sweetest and calmest voice he could manage as he was freaking out on the inside. The girl suddenly went quiet, limb in Taeyong's hold on her shoulders. She kept whispering something underneath her breath until her head shot up and she looked at Taeyong dead in the eyes.

 

“Die.” Is the only thing he could hear until she ran away laughing like a maniac, the lights in the hallway flickering as she ran through it. Taeyong scrambled backwards as fast as he could, he closed the door with his feet and kept his gaze on the bright red door. He thought his heart would beat out of his chest, of all moments that this could’ve happened it had to happen now.

 

“What the fuck.” Taeyong huffed out as he began to stand up, he leaned his head against the door and heard the girl giggling. 

 

Two days of peace and quiet had gone by and that gets repaid with this, Taeyong was still shaking and he felt sweat trickle down his forehead. He closed his eyes and tried to collect his thoughts again, as well as slow his heart rate. He pushed himself away from the door and crawled on top of the bed, not wanting to be near the door.

 

“This is crazy.” He brought the duvet close to his chest and hugged it tight, he grabbed his phone in hand that he had put on the charger, he saw that it was only 2 A.M. so he was woken up from his precious sleep and it wasn’t even morning yet. Suddenly Taeyong’s phone screen went black and he couldn’t turn it on anymore, the knocking sounds began once again. Taeyong placed his hands over his ears and shut his eyes tightly.

  
  


\--

  
  


Yuta woke up by a certain shock that went through his body, “What the fuck!” He brushed the hair out of his face as he grabbed his phone to see what time it was, the only thing was that his phone didn’t want to turn on.

 

“For fucks sake.” He groaned as he went out of his bed and walked into the little bathroom he had, he turned the water on, he then put his hands underneath the running water in the form of a cup. He brought it up to his face and the water came in contact with his skin. He shuddered because the water was way too cold for his liking, almost as if it was going to freeze at any moment. 

 

A sudden growl made Yuta snap out of his little trance, he slowly turned off the faucet and he looked towards the open door. Another low growl echoed throughout the room, it was so deep that it sent shivers down Yuta's spine.

 

With careful steps Yuta entered the room, the growling came from the closet and got louder with every step Yuta took. He stood in front of the closet with his hand on the handle, the growling was drumming in his ears so loud that it was starting to hurt. He knew that it maybe wouldn’t be the best idea to open the closet door but he didn’t know for sure if it was just one of the guys messing with him. So before his ears would begin to bleed, he threw the closet door open. The next thing he knew was that he was laying down on the floor trying to keep something from tearing his throat open.

 

Yuta placed his foot underneath who knows what creature was on top of him and kicked his leg up. The creature was lifted off of the ground giving Yuta enough time to grab his phone and to race out of the door.

  
  


\--

  
  


Ten woke up because someone was knocking his hotel room door, “Ten! Ten!” 

 

“Yuta?” Ten mumbled to himself as he got up from his bed, phone in hand. He turned the flashlight on so that he could see where his feet were going.

 

“Please be awake! Ten?!” Yuta sounded desperate as he kept knocking on the door, Ten unlocked the door and he got nearly pushed aside as Yuta went into the room.

 

Yuta turned around and pulled Ten into a hug, he was shaking really badly as Ten tried to calm the older down, “Hey, hey, what is wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

 

Yuta pulled away and shook his head a distant look in his eyes, “No. No, something attacked me in my room.”

 

“What?” Ten closed the door and guided Yuta to the bed so that they both could sit down. “Tell me.”

 

“I woke up because of some weird shock and when I went to wash my face with water something started growling in my closet.” Yuta tried to control his shaking hands and Ten noticed so he took them in his own. “I thought one of you was playing a prank on me so I opened the closet and next thing I knew I was fighting some creature off.”

 

“How did you make it out of there?!” Ten leaned closer to Yuta's face to look for scratches, “Are you okay??”

 

“I am fine, I kicked it up and then it flew out of my window at the same time I went out of the door.” Yuta ended with a wince as Ten came in contact with a scratch on his shoulder.

 

“This needs to be cleaned soon, Yuta…” Ten trailed off because he knew that it was late at night and they should be sleeping instead of sitting here, talking.

 

“I just want to sleep without anything weird happening.” Yuta sighed as Ten saw something move in the corner of his eye, it could've been his imagination but with the story Yuta just told him, he didn't think twice before saying, “Maybe it is better if we go to Taeyong's room.”

 

“Why?” Yuta lifted his head from his hands, “Is there something wrong with this room too?”

 

Ten saw it again, “Not yet, but look around you.”

 

Yuta looked around him while Ten shined his flashlight from his phone around the room. Rows and rows of dolls lined the shelves that were put up, the closet door was slightly open and even there were dolls, basically, this room was just filled with dolls.

 

“And I am not sure of it but I saw something move in that corner, so it can attack at any given moment.” Ten said as Yuta's eyes met his again, without any other word exchanged Yuta pulled Ten up from the bed. He dragged Ten out of the room and quickly shut the door as both of them saw something fly through the room.

 

“Let's run.”

 

“Yeah, let's do that.”

 

Without any hesitation they ran hand in hand, Yuta, of course, was faster and ran in front pulling Ten along, they got to the stairs and they heard an ear deafening roar. Both of them stood still and they knew they shouldn't look around the corner but them being them, they still did. They took a few steps backwards and when they leaned around the corner they expected to see a giant creature to be standing there, but they didn't see it.

 

Still, Ten let out a tiny screech, he hid behind Yuta. “What? What is it?” Yuta asked looking around the hallway until he finally spotted what Ten saw.

 

“No way.” He said, one of the dolls from Ten's room was sitting against the door, the motion light was flickering on and off at a rapid speed. “No way that such a little doll made that kind of sound.”

 

“Wait, Yuta!” Ten whisper-yelled as Yuta let go of his hand and walked towards the place where the doll was sitting. “What are you going to do?!”

 

Yuta had picked up the doll and examined it, “It is just a normal doll.” He said out loud, he stepped away from the door, doll still in his hands. He threw the doll up and swung his leg back as if he was going to shoot a soccer ball out of his hands. He kicked the doll away with a lot of force and he could hear it hitting the ground. 

 

“Are you an actual idiot!” Ten raised his voice slightly, he wanted to slap the grin off of Yuta's face. The sound of nails scraping on the floor or the walls echoed through the hallway. Both of them looked back at the now dark empty hallway, no motion light went on but the two glowing eyes in the distance seemed to be getting closer.

 

“See now you made the doll angry.” 

 

“That is no doll.”

 

“I know that you dumbass!” Ten grabbed Yuta's hand once again and pulled him with him to the stairs, they hurried up steps as they heard the scraping of nails changing into rapid ticking, meaning the creature that was at the end of the hallway has begun to run.

 

They got to the top of the stairs and opened the door that led to the third floor, they quickly closed it as they heard a deep growl and the creaking of the stairs. 

 

“Taeyong's room?”

 

“Yeah.” They both placed an ear on the door after once agreeing on the room they would go to, they still heard the creature growl and it banged against the door making the two stumble backwards.

 

They quickly got back against the door and suddenly all they heard was silence.

 

They both agreed not to check and walked at a quick pace to Taeyong's room. Ten knocked on the door as Yuta kept checking the door that led to the stairs. Nothing happened with both doors, they didn't open nor did any sound come from behind them.

 

“Taeyong?” Ten knocked again, “It is Yuta and Ten…” He trailed off, also looking towards the door Yuta kept looking at, “Please if you are still awake, can you open the door?”

 

“How can I be sure that it is you?” Taeyong's shaken voice was heard from the other side of the door.

 

“Open the door and you'll see.”

 

The door opened slowly, Taeyong looked them up and down before opening his door all the way, “Come in.”

 

With one last glance towards the door at the beginning of the hallway, they walked into Taeyong's room, closing the door behind them.

 

“Are you okay? You look shaken up.” Yuta noticed how Taeyong kept shaking, “Or are you just really cold?”

 

“I'm just cold…” He said as he sat down on his bed again, covering himself up with the duvet. “Why are you here? Why aren't you sleeping?”

 

“We could ask you the same, but we are glad you are not sleeping.”

 

“You confuse me sometimes.”

 

“Fine, we are here because we got attacked by something and because we didn't feel safe we thought we would go to your room.” By the look on Taeyong’s face, Ten knew something else was going on.

 

“You also got attacked?” Ten stepped forward to lay a hand on Taeyong's shaking shoulders.

 

“Y-Yes, by a spirit.” Taeyong shifted in his spot on the bed, “But are you two okay? Any injuries?”

 

Yuta avoided eye contact as his hand went over his shoulder, “None.”

 

“Injury on the shoulder.” Ten pointed to Yuta, “Don't try to act tough.”

 

“Sit down,” Taeyong told Yuta as he got up, still slightly shaking but okay enough to walk on his own two feet.

 

“What did the spirit do to you?”

 

“It just scared me a lot.” Taeyong opened the small first-aid kit he had taken with him, his bag was near the window and when they thought they were finally safe in this room, the things in the hotel had different ideas. 

 

The window slowly opened by a bright white glowing hand, multiple others began tapping and hitting on the window, no face in sight.

 

Taeyong closed the kit and took it in his hands while slowly backing up. With a hand gesture, he told the other two to do the same. The window was fully open now and a leg went through it, the guys were at the door trying to open the lock without looking. 

 

The spirit looked more menacing than the little child that scared Taeyong, when it got into the room it suddenly flipped onto the ceiling. 

 

“Can you get the door open?!” Ten whisper-yelled, as wind flew through the room at high speed.

 

“Nearly! I think it is trying to keep us inside because it is jammed.”

 

Ten let out a frustrated sigh as he pulled Taeyong away from the door, “You keep your eyes on that thing.”

 

“No, Ten! You can't turn your back to a spirit!” Taeyong said as Ten just glared at the side of his face. With one strong flick, Ten managed to turn the lock and he pulled on the door as hard as he could, not getting it open. 

 

“Ten!” Taeyong pulled his friend down by the shirt he had on, the spirit chose that time to launch forward and if Taeyong hadn't pulled Ten down the spirit wouldn’t have gone through the door but it would've gone into him. They both crawled a bit away from the door as Yuta tried to get the door open. Taeyong stood up and took Ten with him again, the other spirits tried to enter the room one by one but they kept blocking each other and the screeches they let out intensified. 

 

“Got it!” Yuta said as he threw the door open, the three of them hurried out of the room and Yuta closed the door once again. His hand shot to his shoulder as it began to hurt badly.

 

“Let's hope Yukhei hasn't been attacked and will not be attacked,” Taeyong said as they took the few steps it took them to get to Yukhei's room. They knocked on the door multiple times.

 

“Do you think he is awake?” 

 

“I don't know.” They put their ears against the door and all they heard were whimpers. “Oh, no.”

  
  


\--

  
  


_ Sunrays shone into his eyes when he opened them, his hand immediately covered them. Casting a shadow and giving him the ability to look at his surroundings. He was laying down and saw the stems of flowers, sunflowers. He stands up because the flowers are blocking his view even if he is sitting up, once he was standing he looked over an entire field full of sunflowers they looked as if they were still growing but the flower was already out, he slowly spun in a circle trying to see where the field ended, but he couldn’t find it. _

 

_ “Hello?!” He yelled out in the hope that there is someone else, someone that could tell him what was going on, the last thing he knew was that he fell asleep. Yukhei looked up at the sky with the sun burning down upon him, “Is this a dream?” He questioned, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion. _

 

_ “Yukhei.” _

 

_ At the sound of his name he turned around, he heard it faintly but still, he heard it. He looked around the whole area where he stood but saw nobody. _

 

_ “Y-Yukhei.”  _

 

_ The voice sounded so broken, so defeated, it hurt Yukhei’s heart. It hurt even more that he couldn’t figure out who the voice belonged to, he twisted and he turned trying to see if something in the field caught his eye. But yet again, nothing did. _

 

_ “Yukhei!!”  _

 

_ The voice was louder and familiar, Yukhei’s eyes widened as he saw something further into the field, he began to walk through the rows and rows of sunflowers into the direction of the silhouette. The closer he got the more features he could see, it was a person waving at him wanting him to get closer, the next thing he noticed was the orange hair and the bright smile. _

 

_ “Donghyuck?!”  _

 

_ The person stopped waving as Yukhei had gotten a lot closer, they tilted their head and smiled, making their eyes look smaller. Yukhei stopped. _

 

_ “Donghyuck?” _

 

_ The boy in front of him looked at him, curiosity written over his face. All of a sudden the wind started to pick up, rushing through the field of sunflowers. _

 

_ “Come here.”  _

 

_ The boy didn’t move even though Yukhei was begging him to come near him, his head suddenly snapped to his right.  _

 

_ “Dammit, Donghyuck!” _

_ Yukhei tried to move forward and grab the boy by his wrist but he went straight through him.  _

 

_ “The fuck.”  _

 

_ Yukhei spun around and saw Donghyuck running away from him, occasionally looking back at him with fear in his eyes. A shadow figure raced passed Yukhei after he started running after Donghyuck, it was fast and in mere seconds it had reached Donghyuck. _

 

_ Donghyuck tried to avoid it by running to the left, but sadly it still went after him. Yukhei stopped dead in his tracks like something was wrapped around his feet so that he couldn’t move them. He was stuck. The only thing he could do was watch in horror how the shadow figure wrapped around Donghyuck until it engulfed him completely. It felt like Yukhei could see it happening up close even though they were quite a distance away. _

 

_ The shadow figure took the shape of a person, Yukhei’s heart began to beat faster. What if he was the next one?   _

 

_ The figure turned around, it had no face until it snapped its eyes open and they were a bright green color sending chills down Yukhei’s spine. With its eyes set on Yukhei it dashed forwards and leaped once it got closer and the next thing Yukhei saw was black. _

 

“No!” Yukhei screamed as he shot up from his dream, banging on the door followed, “What the fuck?” 

 

Yukhei shook his head and ruffled up his hair, when he heard Taeyong's voice, “Yukhei?! Are you alright?!”

 

“Taeyong?” He got out of bed and walked with weak legs to the door when he opened it he was taken aback by surprise. “What are you all doing here?”

 

“We were attacked in our room.” Yukhei stepped aside to let the three inside of his room, he closed the door and turned around to stare in Ten's worried glance as behind him Taeyong pushed Yuta to sit on the bed and he opened the kit next to him.

 

“Are you okay?” “Shirt off.” Is what Yukhei heard because Ten and Taeyong spoke at the same time.

 

“Yes, I am fine. And why does he need to take his shirt off? And could someone tell me how and why you guys were attacked also why wasn't I?!.” Yukhei rambled, but he noticed the cut on Yuta's shoulder it was bleeding but it didn't look like it hurt a lot.

 

“Ten will tell you but in the meantime pack your bags,” Taeyong said as he carefully cleaned Yuta's wound.

 

“Pack my bag?” Yukhei asked confused, “We still have one more day.”

 

“Yes, I know we have, but we have enough evidence to shut this place down and don't forget, the safety of you guys is more important to me. So we are leaving.”

 

“Okay, captain.” Yukhei saluted as he and Ten walked to the corner of the room where the suitcase and bag of Yukhei laid.

 

“That hurts!” Yuta whined as Taeyong was still cleaning the cut on his shoulder.

 

“I know it hurts, but it will hurt even more if I don't clean it.” Taeyong moved his head so that he could look Yuta in the eyes, “I am nearly done, please hold on a little longer.” Worry was laced in Taeyong's words.

 

“You are shaking.” Ten pointed out to Yukhei, who flinched in response and looked at Ten, “Is everything alright?”

 

“Yes. I'm fine, it is just a bit cold.” Yukhei folded the last piece of clothing and put it in the suitcase, he then closed it together with the bag, it didn't take them that long to pack everything up because Yukhei hadn't really unpacked anything.

 

“We are done.” Both of them stood up, Yukhei had his luggage in his hands while Taeyong was wrapping a bandage around Yuta's shoulder just for safety reasons.

 

“Me too.” He said, getting up from the bed and helping Yuta up too.

 

“It's not like I suddenly can't walk.” Yuta rolled his eyes, “But thank you, Taeyong.” 

 

They all smiled and set off their journey to everyone's room to pack their bags, no one went anywhere without the other three. Because it was far too dangerous, but for some reason, they didn't get attacked anymore until they got to the lobby.

 

“It is because of me, they are scared of me,” Yukhei said confidently as Taeyong put down the money they needed to pay for the days that they stayed, together with their keys. Ten cracked up in laughter as Yuta just shook his head.

 

A sudden growl silenced everyone, Taeyong was the first to notice where it came from, it came from behind them.

 

“Guys.” They all turned their head and saw the creature standing there bearing its teeth at them, luckily for them they had already put the luggage in the car.

 

“What do we do?” 

 

The creature began to drive them in a certain direction, “It is going to force us into the basement!” Taeyong whisper-yelled, “Don't look back and run to the door.”

 

“Okay.”

 

The creature kept backing them up, the chances of them being able to get to the door were slimming, no one dared to take the step or they were waiting for Taeyong to give the sign,  _ I guess I have no other choice,  _ “Go!”

 

Yuta led the others to the door as he was holding onto Yukhei's hand and Yukhei was holding Ten's, once they were out the door they came to a shocking surprise. Their team leader didn't make it out of the hotel.

 

“Taeyong!!” Yuta yelled on the top of his lungs, not caring if he woke people up from their sleep. Soon after some growling and the sound of furniture being broken, a gunshot echoed throughout the building. The three outside waited anxiously near the van until the door opened with a bang and Taeyong ran down the stairs.

 

“Get in the car!” The three did as they were told and Yuta started the car as Taeyong jumped into the empty back seat next to Ten, who closed the door behind him as Yuta sped away.

 

“A ziplock bag,” Taeyong said while trying to catch his breath at the same time as he was repositioning himself in the chair. 

 

“What?”

 

“I need a ziplock bag.” 

 

“Why?” Ten asked as he was already looking through his bag, he found one and handed it to Taeyong.

 

“This is why.” Taeyong held up the sleeve of his shirt, it was a white one so Ten could see the orange goo that was dripping from it. Taeyong put the ziplock bag underneath his sleeve and he brought his arm back so that some goo made it into the little plastic bag.

 

“I think it was the creature’s blood, but I am not sure.”

  
  


\--

  
  


Ten woke up from his sleep, he sat up and stretched. Everything that happened yesterday felt like a dream until Ten looked around and saw that he wasn't in his hotel room. The room felt familiar but he didn't know where he had seen it earlier. He got out of the bed and walked to the door but before he could open it he felt that his legs were kind of cold.

 

He looked down and saw that the sweatpants he was wearing had fallen down. “What the-” He pulled them back up and noticed that they were way too long for him. He signed and pulled on the strings so that the sweatpants would be tight around his waist, he then tied a knot in it so that he wouldn't have to worry about it. 

 

Once he was ready he finally opened the door that led to another dimly lit room, Ten had to squint to actually some outlines of furniture. What he didn't see was that there were people laying on the ground, he only got to know that once he tried to get to the kitchen and tripped over somebody. Out of his own reflex, his hands supported his body on the floor and he was able to swing his legs so that he did a front handspring and landed on his feet again.

 

“It is way too early for this shit.” Ten whispered, he ruffled his hair and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. 

 

He heard a few groans from behind him, “What time is it?” A deep groggy voice asked Ten's heart dropped down into his stomach.

 

“Holy shit, Yukhei.” He said a little too loudly, he only received a 'hmm?’ back. “Why are you here??”

 

“Here?” Yukhei sat up from his place on the ground and grabbed his phone, the dimmed down light casting itself onto his face. His eyes went wide as he saw the time and the missed phone calls plus messages he had gotten.

 

“What is it? And you haven't answered my question, young man.” Ten asked again once Yukhei jumped up still with the same shocked expression on his face.

 

“Missed phone calls.” Yukhei went from place to place, waking up the other two, “And why I am here is because this is my apartment.” 

 

“Your... apartment?”

 

“Yes.” Yukhei threw the curtains open and the sunlight came in like a strong wind.

 

They all screamed and blocked their eyes.

 

“What the hell, Yukhei?!” Yuta cried out, he was laying on the couch the blanket that was supposed to cover him had fallen on the ground.

 

“It is already noon! We all probably have missed phone calls from a certain…” He paused and squinted his eyes trying to make it look intimidating, “...Bunny.”

 

That one word in such a low voice sent shivers and panic through everyone's veins, especially Taeyong's, as he shot up and yelled, “Fuck!! I'm doomed, doomed I tell you!!” As he desperately clung onto Yukhei.

 

And so Taeyong called Doyoung to explain everything to him, the beginning of the phone call was a bit heated because the other could hear Doyoung raise his voice through the phone.

 

Yukhei left for a bit because he had a lot of messages and a few missed phone calls from both Donghyuck and Johnny. Yuta scrolled through his phone expecting something but he had nothing, it saddened him a bit.

 

Ten had a few messages but none asking where he was, so the three of them concluded that Doyoung had gone to the Black Clover bar and asked Johnny about Taeyong.

 

“Okay, I understand, yes, yes Doyoung. We'll be more careful next time. Okay, okay, see you tomorrow then.” Taeyong finally ended the call and turned to the three that were on their phones.

 

“So we have the rest of the day off, do want you want, go home and unpack. We will report our results tomorrow.” The other three nodded, “But first breakfast, so I hope you have something to eat in your fridge, Yukhei.”

 

“Yes, sir!” He replied happily. After they ate they went their separate ways, Yukhei stayed at home and would later go to Donghyuck, Ten went home to unpack and Yuta also went home to greet his family. Taeyong, on the other hand, had to go to Johnny's for two reasons, one is to pick up Jisung and the other is to reassure a panicking Johnny.

 

He sighed as he walked the way there, the suitcase rattled over the uneven stones of the sidewalk. Taeyong needed to stop a few times to adjust the bag he had placed on top of it before he could continue. He finally arrived at the bar and ran the doorbell that was linked to Johnny's apartment.

 

He heard the door open and footsteps coming down from the stairs, they were faint but they were there. The door opened with intense speed, Jisung stood on the other side with his eyes wide.

 

“Taeyong!!” The boy yelled and jumped into the arms of his older brother, the brother who dropped the handle of his suitcase to catch the other in his arms.

 

“Are you crying?” Taeyong asked surprised, his hand finding its way into Jisung's hair.

 

“No.” Jisung's voice cracked, “Maybe.”

 

Taeyong chuckled before pulling away, he kissed Jisung's forehead, “I'm sorry for worrying you, Sungie.” 

 

“It's okay, you are here.”

 

“Let's go upstairs, to get your stuff and all.” Taeyong smiled and Jisung smiled back before they both walked up the stairs to the apartment. They stepped into the apartment and it didn’t take long until Taeyong was lifted up from the ground.

 

“Taeyong!” 

 

“Johnny!” Taeyong shrieked followed by giggles.

 

“Gross.” Donghyuck and Jisung said at the same time, which caused Donghyuck to be surprised and pinch Jisung’s cheeks.

 

“You got some explaining to do,” Johnny said once he set Taeyong down, the stern look on his face didn’t last long as a smile replaced it.

 

“You probably had to deal with Doyoung?” Taeyong asked and Johnny nodded, so as always Taeyong trusts Johnny with his life and tells him what happened. But before he did he sent Jisung upstairs to get his things ready so that they could leave afterwards, Donghyuck joined the boy even though he was curious he knew that Taeyong would only tell Johnny.

 

After Taeyong explained the last happenings of their trip Johnny's worried expression only grew. “Are you sure you are okay?”

 

“Yes, I am sure.” He showed his hands and arms, “See no scratches!” Taeyong smiled slightly but it changed into a frown really quickly. “I just don't get how those things appeared there, it is too unlikely to be real.”

 

“No, it's not, you said Yuta got hurt and if it wasn't real than Yuta wouldn't have gotten hurt,” Johnny reassured Taeyong before the red-haired man could think he was going insane.

 

“Thanks for telling me that.” Taeyong leaned into Johnny's chest as the other wrapped his arms around Taeyong's small figure. 

 

“Be careful next time, okay?” Johnny whispered into Taeyong's ear, “You really had me worried there for a second.”

 

“Sorry, Johnny.” Taeyong felt himself being squished as Johnny tightened his grip a bit before letting go, a few seconds after that Jisung came downstairs with Donghyuck following in his footsteps.

 

“Catch up with you later tomorrow?” Taeyong asked, “I got to unpack and get things in order for work.”

 

“Yeah, tomorrow night? At Black Clover?”

 

“As always.” Taeyong grinned as he grew confident and kissed Johnny on his cheek, before grabbing his suitcase and hugging Donghyuck, also giving him a kiss on the cheek to make it not seem weird that he did that to Johnny. “Thank you for letting Jisung stay over, I really owe you one.”

 

“It was no problem!” Donghyuck waved goodbye as he closed the door behind the leaving pair. He turned around to look at Johnny, who was still staring into empty space.

 

“Earth to Johnny?” 

 

Him waving his hand in front of Johnny's eyes seemed to do the trick as Johnny snapped out of his little daze. “He kissed me on the cheek.”

 

“He also did that to me, you aren't special.” Donghyuck walked over to the couch and laid down.

 

“No, but he has never done that before, it was always a goodbye hug but with you, it was a hug and a kiss on the cheek.”

 

“Hmm. You got me there.” Donghyuck sat up, he crossed his legs as did he cross his arms over his chest. “When will you tell him?” 

 

“Never.” Donghyuck gave Johnny a glance, “Maybe I'll tell him, but not right now, he is busy.”

 

“Whatever you say, big guy.”

  
  


 

\--

 

 

“I’m home!!” Yuta’s voice rang through the apartment, he found it weird when he didn’t get a response back, normally Chenle would be running out of his room and he expected Renjun to be back already but what was the weirdest was that Kun was also nowhere to be seen.

 

“Guys?” Yuta walked into the kitchen but once again no one was there, “Babies?!” He said as he opened the door to Renjun’s and Chenle’s shared room, empty again.

 

He walked into his and Kun’s room with his luggage, once he turned the light on in the room he saw that a note was left on the bed. “Weird…”

 

Yuta picked up the folded note and unfolded it so that he could read it, “Hey Yuta! Kun told me to write you this note as he is busy packing! But Kun and I will fetch Renjun from the edge of the forest as he called us to do that.” Yuta read out loud, “Call us once you get back home! Kun has been sulking ever since you left but don’t tell him I told you, hehehe~” Yuta chuckled at the last part, typical Chenle, he shook his head and continued to read, “We miss you and hopefully you won’t have to read this note because we might already be home by the time you get here!”

 

And then Chenle signed off with the date next to it, it was a note from yesterday so worry shot through Yuta’s body, but then he thought that maybe Kun made the choice to stay somewhere before returning. Yuta sighed and put the note down, he took his phone out of his back pocket and called Kun. 

 

He listened to it ring once, twice, thrice and a fourth time before a robotic voice told him that the number was currently unavailable and that he could leave a voice message, which he didn’t. He threw his phone on the bed and began to unpack his bags. 

 

After he was done he tried to call again but to no avail, Yuta grabbed a t-shirt and some sweatpants plus some undergarments before heading to the shower. He let his tense body relax under the hot water that was running down his back, for some reason he felt useless. If he got home a day earlier he could have joined them but he just got home today, he didn’t know what they were up to or even if they were okay. Before Yuta let the tears fall from his eyes, he turned the shower off.

 

He dried himself off and put on the clothes he gathered before that, he walked towards the mirror and looked at his eyes. They were a bit red but it wasn’t very noticeable, so he shrugged his shoulders and before he could turn around something in the corner of the mirror caught his eye.

 

It was on the upper left corner, a kind of black mass that looked like a bunch of shadows huddled together, it was just there but when Yuta turned around to look at it, the mass was gone. The urge to look back into the mirror was strong but he has seen a lot of horror movies and he didn’t want that thing to come inside his house, especially not now.

 

Yuta grabbed something to drink and headed to the living room of the apartment, he sat down on the couch but the stinging of his shoulder finally reached his mind. He hissed in pain and placed his glass down as fast as he could, he ran to the bathroom again and took off his shirt. He looked at his wound through the mirror, it was bleeding slightly but it had been cleaned underneath the shower. 

 

Yuta shook his head at himself that he had forgotten that he was injured, while he was trying to get the bandage around his shoulder his eyes couldn’t help themselves but to travel back to the upper left corner of the mirror, the thing was not there. Yuta let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding as he continued to wrap his shoulder in bandages. He was nearly finished when his phone rang, the first person that went through his mind was Kun. 

 

He sprinted out of the bathroom letting multiple things fall from the counter, he reached over the table in the living room to grab his phone, he didn’t read the name and picked up.

 

“Kun?!” Yuta said a bit out of breath, his voice was laced with hope.

 

“No, sorry. This is Doyoung.” The voice on the other end of the phone said, Yuta’s body tensed up.

 

“What is it, sir?”

 

“Drop that, Yuta, you are not working. I am calling you for two reasons but I guess you already found out about one…”

“How do you know that Kun is gone?” Yuta went back with the phone in his hand and putting it on speaker, laying it on the counter next to the sink as he waited for an answer.

 

“Because Kun called me to tell me he was going to pick up Renjun and Jeno.”

 

“Right...Forgot Jeno was with Renjun…” Yuta trailed off before he began to resume binding the bandages, “So, what is the second reason?” He tried his best to not sound curious but who could blame him.

 

“I need someone to go to the Black Clover bar, someone in there called that a suspicious man walked in and I sent someone already but they are not responding to my calls.”

 

“So, you need someone that has more experience or something?”

 

“Yeah, I tried to call Taeyong but he is not picking up but he shot me a text that he is busy and that I had to call you.”

 

“But you know I am injured right?” At that exact moment Yuta hit a sore spot and hissed out, but he continued as he was nearly done.

 

“I know, but you and I both know that is not going to stop you.” Doyoung sighed and Yuta could hear the disappointment from the other side.

 

“That is where you are right.” Yuta said, a grin forming on his face, he finished wrapping the bandages around his shoulder and put his shirt back on. “So, you want me to go over there and check out the situation?”

 

“Yes, if you can do that, preferably undercover.”

 

“In sweat pants and a T-shirt while looking extremely stressed and exhausted does that count as a disguise?” Yuta asked looking at himself in the mirror.

 

“Wear a hoodie since it is cold outside. But for the rest that is fine.”

 

“Alright, mom.” Yuta whistled at the same time that he was making his way to his closet.

 

“Yuta, I swear to-”

 

“Swear to what?” Yuta asked innocently, the same grin from before crept back on his face.

 

“Nevermind, just be careful, okay?”

 

“Okay, Doyoung.” Yuta's expression softened at what Doyoung told him. Since Doyoung is not that kind of guy to say that without meaning.

 

“Bye, Yuta.”

 

“Bye!”

 

And so Yuta grabbed a hoodie and threw that on over his t-shirt, his badge was put in his back pocket and his gun was put in between the elastic waistband of his sweatpants and his back.

 

He lived close by the bar so he was able to walk there, he already began dragging his feet every so now and then. Because he wasn't going to lie he was pretty exhausted and wanted to stay in his house the rest of the day, but no.

 

Yuta entered the bar and scanned it, he saw no one out of the ordinary, he went over to a table a bit in the back and sat down. Not soon after a waitress came to get his order and of course he ordered an non-alcoholic drink because he was on the job. His eyes scanned around the room once again, but he couldn't see anything weird. 

 

He finished his drink in no time, he was about to stand up and head home when a scream brought him back to reality. A woman threw the door open from the bathroom and came running out, tripping just a few steps out. Her body covered in a weird fluid, a crazed look in her eyes when hers met Yuta’s. 

 

A deformed snarl came from behind the door, the woman got up and ran away from the door as quick as possible. Everyone else in the room also backed up, Yuta in that case, brought out his gun from behind his back. He pulled back the safety of the gun and pointed it at the door. His mind going blank and his focus was only on whatever would be coming out of that bathroom.

 

Not a second later the door opened with a bang and a weird creature leaped out, going to attack Yuta. But before it had a chance Yuta's gun went off and the creature fell limb mid jump. Yuta smirked and walked up to the creature, he put two more bullets into the presumably dead body of the deformed creature. The orange liquid flowing out of the holes the bullets made.

 

“That's familiar…” Yuta said as he crouched down and put his finger into the orange liquid, he rubbed his fingers together and it had the density blood also had, maybe a bit thicker.

 

“Do you have a bag??” He said as he looked at Seulgi, “One big enough to put this in?”

 

Seulgi nodded with her eyes open wide, she hurried to grab something behind the bar and came running towards Yuta with a plastic bag, one of the nearest supermarket they have. Yuta thanked her and took the bag, he turned it inside out and put his hand inside it, like that he grabbed the slimy and gross body of the creature, with his free hand he grabbed one of the handles of the bag and pulled it over so that the body would go into the bag. Once he was done he picked up the bag and smiled.

 

“Alright nothing to see here! Just a savage giant rat.” 

 

The woman that came out of the bathroom earlier had already gone out of the door just like most of the customers. Yuta leaned towards Seulgi, “Maybe it's for the best that you close for the rest of the night..”

 

“Maybe, yeah.”

 

 

\--

 

 

The three of them sat on the couch, watching one of their favorite animes, Johnny on one side and Yukhei next to him with Donghyuck cuddled into his side. They looked at each other when they heard ruckus coming from downstairs, Johnny was about to stand up but Yukhei told him he would go downstairs as a scream followed.

 

“I'll go.” Yukhei went to his bag in quick movements and grabbed his gun and his badge out of it.

 

“Do you have those on you all the time?” Donghyuck asked and Yukhei just shook his head, “Not all the time.” Is with what he responded before he disappeared out of the door. He went down the stairs and opened the door that led to the street.

 

With his gun firmly in his right hand he went to open the bar door, only to have it nearly smack him in the face, multiple people ran out with panic written all over their faces.

 

_ How lovely, _ Yukhei sighed as he put the gun up with both hands and looked inside while leaning against the closed door. He saw a man standing there waiting for something and the rest of the people in the bar where looking at him or at the door right in front of them. 

 

Yukhei lowered his gun and walked in slowly, he went a bit to the side so he could see the face of the man but when he realized it was Yuta he lowered his guard completely.

 

His whole body jumps when the door opened and a gun shots echoed through the room. He could vaguely hear Yuta's voice asking for something but nearly all the customers walked out of the bar talking to each other that he couldn't hear what he said completely.

 

He was brought back to the actual world when he felt a tap against his shoulder, he looked down a bit and saw the smiling face of Seulgi, “Hey, Yukhei!”

 

“Hey.”

 

“I hate to break it to you but Donghyuck is not working neither is Johnny and we are going to close for the night.”

 

Yukhei smiled and laughed, “That's fine, I got here because Johnny would've otherwise.” He craned his neck a bit to look at Yuta, “But it seems things were already under control here.”

 

Yuta turned around and made eye contact with Yukhei almost instantly, he smiled and walked towards the two.

 

“I got more things to show Doyoung tomorrow!” He said once he was close enough to them so that he wouldn't have to shout. Seulgi left the two alone to ask the other people that hadn't left yet to leave.

 

“There was a creature that attacked a woman in here, I shot it. Its body is in this bag.” Yuta held up the bag, but when he did they both heard something fall to the ground.

 

“Sorry that was my fault!” Someone said behind the counter, “Seulgi there are still two people.”

 

“Right.” Yuta said, “We need to leave so that they can clean up.”

 

“Yes, uh, I don't know what Johnny thinks of it but I guess you can swing by.” 

 

“Oh, no, no. I'll head home cause I don't want to bother them with this…” Yuta trailed off while holding the bag.

 

“Yeah, okay, true.” Yukhei said and both of them said goodbye, Yukhei went back upstairs and knocked on the door. Donghyuck opened the door and hugged Yukhei, “Wow, what's up?” 

 

“I heard gunshots.” Donghyuck's voice was quiet but Yukhei could still hear him clearly.

 

“It was just Yuta shooting something, I'm fine, we're fine.” Yukhei ran his hand over Donghyuck's head before prying the boy off of him and guiding him back to the couch.

 

“Yuta was there?” 

 

“Yeah, so I didn't even need to go downstairs.” Yukhei laughed, putting his arm around Donghyuck and bring him close into his side. The three of them kept watching for hours on end sometimes standing up to get up to get something to drink or to eat, or a bathroom break but when the clock hit 11PM it was time for Yukhei to go and sleep as he had to be at work early. 

 

Donghyuck went with him to his room and they both got ready to lay down and sleep.

 

“Sweet dreams, bud.” Donghyuck said as he put the covers over them. “You really don't feel weird about this right?”

 

“I should be the one asking you.” Yukhei stifled a laugh.

 

“No, I am not.”

 

“Great.” Yukhei turned to face Donghyuck and kissed his forehead. “Goodnight.” 

 

 

\--

 

 

Ten shot up from his sleep as his phone rang, but it wasn't the sound of his alarm, “What the fuck.” He rubbed in his eyes and grabbed his phone not looking at who was calling.

 

“Yes?” His voice was strained and deeper than normal,  _ fuck. _

 

“T-Ten?” 

 

Ten sat up, “Donghyuck?”

 

“Thank god.”

 

“What's wrong, buddy?”

 

“It's Yukhei, can you please come over?”

 

Ten looked at the time on his clock, “Donghyuck, it's fucking 4AM. Why are you calling me this early. Wake Johnny up or something.”

 

Ten wasn't in the mood to have his sleep ruined like this.

 

“Please, Ten. I don't know what to do and Johnny is trying to contact Taeyong but he isn't picking up his phone.” Ten heard the other boy sniffle on the other side of the phone.

 

“Alright, alright. Calm down, I'm gonna come over. Not guaranteeing that I'll be of much help.” Ten said as he got out of his bed and put his phone on speaker.

 

“Talk to me, buddy. What is going on.”

 

“Well the first time Yukhei woke me up I thought he was just having a bad dream but he woke me up again and again and again by screaming. And when I tried to gain his attention he just stared straight ahead not moving a muscle and I don't think he blinked that much as well.”

 

“Alright that is weird, were you able to gain his attention eventually, or?” Ten asked as he slipped into his feet into his shoes and put on his jacket, he grabbed his earbuds from the table and put them in, connecting them to his phone.

 

“No, his eyes would roll back and his body would go limp again, so I went back to sleep thinking it was just a one time thing but then I woke up again by him screaming and reaching out for something.”

 

Ten listened to Donghyuck's explanation as he ran down the stairs from his apartment, his bike keys in hand. He would take the car but luckily he would make it there quicker by going on his bike because he knows a lot of short-cuts.

 

“Where are you now?”

 

“Next to the bed on a chair, holding his hand with one and the phone with the other. He is asleep again.”

 

“Stay there, I am on my way. Try to gain his attention if he wakes up. How long does it take for him to wake up again?”

 

“An hour? Or half an hour.”

 

“Okay, okay. Try to stay calm, ask if Johnny comes back to the room if you need support. I am on the way.” Ten said as he went through alleys with his bike, he went as fast as he could, knowing fully well how to get there.

 

“I'll ask. See you soon then, Ten.”

 

“Don't you dare hang up.” 

 

“Why?”

 

“I'll be emotional support through the phone.”

 

“Okay…” Donghyuck's voice was barely hearable but Ten could just imagine the face the boy on the other side had at that very moment, his head down trying to not let tears fall. 

 

“Don't cry. Ask Johnny for a hug.”

 

“You know I can hear you right?” Johnny's voice came through the phone, Ten grinned.

 

“Well hello, teddy bear.”

 

He heard Donghyuck snort at the nickname.

 

“Hey, Ten.” Johnny sounded a bit annoyed, “Why are you telling me what to do?”

 

“Because Donghyuck is going to cry any given moment and I-” He cut his sentence as he had to avoid a cat that suddenly came out of nowhere, “For fucks sake.”

 

“You okay?” Donghyuck's worried voice rang through his ears. 

 

“Yes, I am fine. But you, Johneth.” Ten laid emphasis on the 'you’, “Hug your little brother!”

 

“I was already planning on doing that!”

 

“Then why weren't you already?!” 

 

“Because I don't like doing things that people tell me to do!”

 

“Well, I don't care, he needs comfort!”

 

“Fine!”

 

“Fine!”

 

Donghyuck's laughter laced through the playful bickering the two did, it kinda was Ten's plan to make the younger laugh and fortunately, Johnny noticed it right away.

 

“Is he hugging you now, Duckie?”

 

“Yes, he is.”

 

“Good.” Ten turned the last few corners and it had been quiet the rest of his way there, he heard Johnny whispering comforting words to Donghyuck and he knew he wouldn't have to say anything else, so he laid his focus back on the road.

 

“I'm nearly there.” Ten informed the two, he heard Johnny hum in response.

 

Ten rounded the last corner and saw the familiar sign and bar coming into few, “Open the door for me.”

 

“I'm coming,” Johnny replied and Ten heard some shuffling on the other side of the phone. Ten parked his bike again the wall and locked it just as the door opened, Johnny stood in the doorway and just when Ten was about to walk in he stopped in his tracks as the screaming startled him. 

 

“Fucks sake!” With that Ten pushed past Johnny and ran up the stairs, he may not have known the boy for a long time but since he is younger Ten had this sudden feeling of protection every time he saw Yukhei. Even though he knows Yukhei can take care of himself in times like this, he didn’t know any better.

 

He dashed into Donghyuck’s room and pushed Yukhei down by his shoulders, he told Donghyuck to get out of the room, but the younger didn’t want to so Ten looked at Johnny for help. Johnny nodded and lifted Donghyuck up by his waist, he didn’t give in to Donghyuck’s protests.

 

“Yukhei!!” Ten screamed near the sleeping boy’s ear, hoping it would wake him up. But Yukhei kept screaming ‘no’, he moved around a lot and nearly hit Ten three times.

 

“Dammit, Hei.” Ten began to shake Yukhei by his shoulders with all the strength he could muster in the early morning. It wasn’t that much.

 

Yukhei’s body fell limp and his eyes opened in an instant, it honestly sent chills down Ten’s spine.

 

“Don’t make me do this, Yukhei.” Ten begged his face scrunching with pain and regret that was going to come. But Yukhei wouldn’t budge nor wake up fully.

 

“Fine.” Ten raised his hand, he closed his eyes before he hit Yukhei with a lot of force across the face. “Fuck!”

 

Ten yelled out while Yukhei gasped for air, Ten held his hand with his other one as he felt it sting.

 

“What the fuck!” Yukhei said as his left side of his face stung and hurt, he sat up holding that side of his face.

 

“Sorry, I had to.” Ten grimaced as the sound of the slap still echoed in his mind.

 

“Why?!”

 

“You kept screaming while sleeping and then your eyes would snap open but you would go all quiet and not move at all, you scared Donghyuck a lot.” Ten ran his hand through his hair as he sat down on the chair next to the bed.

 

“I did what?”

 

“I literally just told you.”

 

“Yeah, but did I really scare Donghyuck that much??”

 

“You woke him up almost every hour by screaming ‘no’ and then not moving until your eyes rolled back and you fell asleep again…” Ten’s gaze went over to the door, “Go comfort Donghyuck.”

 

Yukhei stood up from the bed but he fell down again, “I can’t feel my legs.” He said as he laid there.

 

Ten rolled his eyes and grabbed Yukhei’s feet to throw his legs back on the bed, “I’ll get Donghyuck. But please get some sleep or stay awake for the rest of the time.” Ten said as he stood up and made his way to the door but before he walked through it he turned around again, “If you wanna talk about it, I’m always here.”

 

He saw Yukhei nod and with that he went out the door, making his way down the stairs, he entered the living room where he saw Donghyuck cuddled into Johnny’s side. The younger boy’s head shot up from hearing the stairs creak, he looked at Ten with hope in his eyes.

 

A smile made its way onto Ten’s face once he got at the end of the stairs, “He is awake and actually responds, so go to him.” 

 

Donghyuck sprinted up the stairs almost instantly and Ten could only chuckle, “Well he fell fast!”

 

“You could say that, yeah.” Johnny smiled to himself, Ten went to sit next to Johnny, with his body faced to Johnny he put his arm again the back of the couch and rested his head in his hand while one of his legs laid on the couch, the other one barely touching the ground.

 

“So how is it going with you and your lover boy?”

 

“Let’s not start this again,” Johnny said, the taller male began to stand up but Ten dragged him down again.

 

“You gotta tell him some day.”

 

“Yeah, some day. Not today or tomorrow.” Johnny stood up again, “Can’t we just sleep now that the whole Yukhei situation is over?”

 

Ten nodded, “Do you have pillows and blankets for me?”

 

“Too tired to get them, just sleep next to me.”

 

“Alright, fine, grizzly bear.”

 

“Can you stop giving me nicknames, just stick to one, please!” 

 

“No, can’t do, honeybee.” Ten replied smugly while the two of them walked up the stairs.

 

“How did I stay friends with you, seriously.” Johnny tugged at his hair when he ran his hand through it, before they got to Johnny’s room they stopped at Donghyuck’s door, it was wide open and a light was still on.

 

Yukhei looked up at the noise and smiled, before he focused back on the book in his hand, a sleeping Donghyuck drooling over his t-shirt. It seemed like he didn’t mind at all that the younger was snoring a little and getting his saliva all over Yukhei’s t-shirt.

 

Ten shrugged his shoulders and pushed Johnny into the direction of his own room. “Let’s go to sleep as well, since I only have-” Ten cut himself off to look at the time, the clock read 4:30 AM, “-like sixish hours left to sleep.”

 

“Thank you for coming over, Ten.” Johnny turned to look at Ten from his side of the bed, “I don’t know what would’ve happened if you didn’t.”

 

“Well, Taeyong would’ve probably answered his phone and would’ve come over, but instead of slapping Yukhei he would throw water over the boy’s face.” Ten told Johnny nonchalantly, before turning around to face away from Johnny, “But he didn’t and it really wasn’t any problem at all.”

 

Johnny laughed when he heard that, “I swear that Donghyuck told me that you said to him that you didn’t want to be called so early in the morning.”

 

“Well, no one wants that, honestly.”

 

“You got a point there, I also didn’t want to get out of bed when Donghyuck woke me up.”

 

“But once you heard the worry in his voice you did, huh?” Ten questioned his friend.

 

“Yeah, I did.”

 

“Same. I nearly sprinted out of my apartment like a mad man but then I remembered that I wasn’t wearing shoes nor a coat, so-” Ten cut himself off by chuckling. 

 

“Thank you again.”

 

“It was no problem, tall giant.”

 

“Goodnight.” Johnny mumbled some things underneath his breath that Ten couldn’t understand but he knew Johnny was once again annoyed by the nicknames Ten kept giving him, he also knew that Johnny secretly likes it but covers it up by getting annoyed or being hateful against it.

 

“Goodnight!” Ten said cheerfully as he pulled the cover until it nearly covered his nose and he nuzzled his head into the very soft pillow. Feeling the warmth surrounding him he let his mind flow and his thoughts for tomorrow slide as he closed his eyes.

 

 

\--

 

 

The time that Ten spend asleep felt like a couple of minutes as he awoke by the sound of something bumping into things, he opened his eyes slowly and the memories of yesterday flooded back into his mind. He thought it was all a dream but once he saw Johnny’s face close to his he knew it wasn’t.

 

The door of the room opened up and he heard someone tiptoe their way to Ten’s side, he felt a little push against his shoulders and Yukhei’s deep voice entered his ears.

 

“Ten…” The tall boy whispered, “Wake up!”

“What is it now, Hei?”

 

“Hei?”

 

“Yeah, your new made nickname, now what is it can’t you see I’m trying to sleep?” Ten turned around so that he could look at Yukhei’s silhouette, he took his arms out from underneath the covers and placed them on top of them.

 

“Well, about that..” Yukhei trailed off playing with his fingers, Ten started to get irritated by the fact that Yukhei wasn’t saying what he wanted to say.

 

“Spit it out, kid.”

 

“We have like half an hour to get to work…”

 

“What?” Ten sat up straight away and looked at the clock, 9:30 AM. “Alright, we are doomed.” Is the only thing Ten says before standing up and leaving the bed as quiet as possible, making sure to not wake up the sleeping giant. 

 

“What do you mean doomed? You came here with the car right?” Yukhei trailed behind Ten, as they both walked down stairs, Ten turned around and narrowed his eyes at Yukhei.

 

“No, I didn’t. And why are you already completely dressed?” 

 

“Took some extra clothes with me because I knew I was going to stay over.”

 

“Well, lucky you!” Ten fished out his phone from the pocket of his sweatpants, “Cause I sure as hell didn’t.”

 

“Who are you calling?”

 

“Yuta. He’ll be ready to go to work by now so I’m sure he’ll pick us up.” Ten heard the phone ring thrice, “At least I hope so…”

 

“This is Yuta speaking.” Yuta’s voice sounded through the phone, Ten rolled his eyes at the way Yuta picked up the phone.

 

“Really?” Ten could hear Yuta laughing loudly.

 

“Yeah, I’m sorry! What’s up? Why are you calling, we literally see each other in like half an hour…”

 

“That’s the problem! I am at Johnny’s because of something that happened last night and I don’t have any spare clothes, I also got here on my bike so it would take too long to get home and get changed, plus!” Ten paused to catch his breath, “I also have a Yukhei I need to take with me to work.”

“You want me to come to get you?”

 

“Yes please??” Ten asked with hope laced into his voice, maybe even in his whole body as he stood up on the tip of his toes.

 

“Yeah, be there in like two minutes.” With that Yuta hang up the phone, Ten turned to Yukhei.

 

“Are you ready to go?” Yukhei nodded in response and Ten quickly grabbed a pen with paper and scribbled a small note for the two sleepy heads, before he walked away to put on his shoes, as did Yukhei. They both put on their coats and at the same time that they arrived downstairs a car pulls into the street.

 

“He said two minutes but it has been four.” Ten jokes, earning an eye roll from Yukhei.

 

“Get in losers,” Yuta said as he rolled down the nearest window to the two, he had sunglasses on but the sun wasn’t even shining.

 

“Did you really put the sunglasses on just for that?” Ten asked as he took place in the passenger seat and Yukhei put his bag on the furthest back seat before sitting down in the middle one.

 

Yuta side glanced at the two through the rear view mirror and smirked, “Yes.” 

  
  


\--

 

 

“Where is that team of yours?” Taeyong looked up when a pair of hands placed themselves into his eye field.

 

“I have no idea, sir.” Taeyong said as Doyoung shook his head.

 

“They should've been here an hour ago!”

 

“I've tried to contact them, none of them are picking up their phones, sir.”

 

Doyoung stood with his hands in his hair, his glasses on the bridge of his nose. “You know what.”

 

“What?” Taeyong looked at his captain with a confused expression.

 

“Stop calling me sir, I am younger than you.”

 

“But you are higher up, I have to,” Taeyong argued back, the conversation about the late comers long forgotten.

 

“Well as your captain I am telling you to stop it, I'll also say it to Yuta and Ten.”

 

“What about Yukhei.”

 

“He is younger than me, he better treat me with respect.”

 

Taeyong laughed, “Since when did you loosen up so much?”

 

“Since Jungwoo told me to, plus that little brat Jaemin, but Taeil was the final one.”

 

“Jaemin?”

 

“Yeah, he started working at Jungwoo's bakery recently. Seems to me that you haven't been there in a while.”

 

“No,” Taeyong chuckled, “Too busy with cases or drowning my sorrow away with shots.”

 

“That's still not healthy.”

 

“What ya gonna do about it?” Taeyong shrugged with his shoulders.

 

Doyoung was going to say something but he got cut off when the elevator dinged and three loud detectives walked into the precinct.

 

“I told you, not to chase after the dog!!”

 

“But it was so fluffy and I really wanted to pet it.”

 

“Then just ask the owner next time!”

 

“There was no owner…” Yukhei looked down, both of the teammates didn't notice the weird bump in Yukhei’s coat.

 

“Tell me you didn't.” Ten pinched the bridge of his nose.

 

“I didn't say anything.”

 

“Yukhei!!” Yuta said as Yukhei unzipped his jacket and took out a little puppy. 

 

Taeyong and Doyoung stood next to Taeyong's desk watching it all go down.

 

“He really-” Taeyong began, “-brought a puppy…” Doyoung finished the sentence. “...into the precinct.” They said at the same time.

 

“Yuta, Ten, Yukhei.” Doyoung raised his voice to reach the bickering three. They all looked his way with fear written on their face.

 

“Y-Yes?” Yuta replied as the three of them walked closer, thinking they would be thought a lesson by being late.

 

“You two,” Doyoung pointed at Yuta and Ten, “I want you two to stop calling me sir and all that just call me Doyoung.”

 

“Wow, what changed?”

 

“He loosened up a little.” Taeyong snorted with his arms crossed over his chest.

 

“You can keep calling me sir or captain since you are younger than me, kid.” Doyoung told Yukhei, he eyed the puppy in his hands, “And put the little one in my office before people start to ask questions.”

 

Yukhei's face lit up and he speed walked to Doyoung's office, “The rest of you bring all the evidence you collected into the meeting room.”

 

And so they did, Taeyong put up a presentation with all the pictures they had of the evidence and laid out the physical objects onto a table. They explained what went down and why Doyoung wasn't able to reach them when they didn't update the next morning. 

 

Yuta interrupted after some time and explained the events of yesterday, he took out the plastic bag he was holding behind his back. He laid out some papers on top of the table before he dropped the slimy body on it.

 

Doyoung gave them permission to send everything to the lab for investigation, they would keep the findings to themselves and only share it with the even higher, higher-ups.

 

They went to work after that, sending the items to the lab with the best description they could give them. Writing out reports and hurrying out of the precinct to get rid of criminal activity on the streets.

 

Yuta and Ten were playing around on their desks, shooting paper balls at each other when the elevator dinged for the thousandth time that day.

 

Taeyong and Yukhei stepped out of it with another guy that was in handcuffs, Taeyong walked past everyone with an annoyed expression as he brought the guy to their holding cells.

 

“What happened?” Ten asked, worry laced into his voice as he saw Yukhei’s conflicted expression on his face.

 

“Taeyong is mad at me...At least I think so.”

 

“What happened??” Yuta asked when Taeyong sat down on his chair and pulled himself behind his desk. Without getting a response Yuta tried again, “Taeyong?”

The male turned his chair so his back was facing the others, “So you are really going to be like that, huh?”

 

“Yuta, it’s fine.” Yukhei spoke up, “It’s my fault anyway.” His gaze went over to Ten and it didn’t take long until Ten realized what he was talking about.

 

“That is not your fault, you can’t control what you dream of.” Ten stood up, his chair rolling away behind him.

 

“What do you mean dream of?” Taeyong asked confused but it had a slight undertone of anger, “He nearly crashed the fucking car and then he nearly let that man escape, who if I remember correctly, we have been chasing for over six months now.”

 

“What I mean, is that Yukhei wasn’t able to sleep last night and he was tormented with the same nightmare over and over again, but you would’ve known if you picked up your phone at 4 AM.”

 

“I was asleep at 4 AM.”

 

“I was too, but I woke up because of my ringtone and I picked up, went over to Johnny’s because that was where Yukhei was and had to hear the most awful story. I stayed over because it was way too late to go back and woke up too late which resulted into all three of us being late.”

 

Taeyong looked from Ten’s angry expression to Yukhei who was hiding his face, he felt stupid and wrong, “I am sorry.”

 

“You better be.” Ten said before he walked away, Yuta and Taeyong made eye contact and Yuta also stood up, walking after Ten, saying he would take care of it.

 

“Yukhei, I-” 

 

“It’s fine, Taeyong.”

 

“But, I-”

 

“I should’ve told you as soon as you asked me to join those cases. I’m not fit for field work at the moment.” Yukhei’s head hung low, “I’ll deal with reports and such, you can take Yuta or Ten, I would choose Ten since he really wanted to join you…”

 

Taeyong nodded and ran into the direction where the other two walked off to.

 

Yukhei sat down in the chair behind his desk and rested his head on top of the wooden board. He closed his eyes and let his mind drift.

 

_ “Yukhei!!” _

_ It was the same echoed voice Yukhei heard during the night, “Yukhei!!” _

 

_ He refused to turn around and look into the direction where he knew Donghyuck would stand, waving at him enthusiastically. _

 

_ “Look at me!!” The cheery voice suddenly changed into something deep and demonic, it caused him to turn around in shock. _

 

_ He saw Donghyuck standing there, really close to him, but instead of that alive look the boy always has was his skin as white as a ghost and his eyes were as dead as Yukhei has ever seen. Weird black spots were forming on Donghyuck’s face until smoke started to swirl around his body and his eyes turned into those familiar bright green ones. Yukhei has started to develop a hatred of them. _

 

_ “Look...at...me!” The shadow that over took Donghyuck’s body launched at Yukhei as it did every time. _

 

“Yukhei!!” Yuta shook the boy awake as he started to whine and move around, Yuta had heard what happened and he promised Ten to look out for Yukhei while the other was out with Taeyong.

 

“I’m sorry!”

 

“It’s fine, just don’t want you to relife that again.” 

 

Without any further troubles, the day went by and just like that Yukhei found himself home again. Yukhei didn’t know what to do instead of lying on the couch and looking at the ceiling, he was waiting until he got hungry but that didn’t happen. 

 

With nearly no energy left he dragged himself to bed and changed into his sleeping clothes, he let himself fall onto his bed and watched the time tick by, without being able to close his eyes. The nightmare kept playing in his head without him even having to dream, he started to hallucinate and because of the lack of sleep, he wasn’t beginning to feel well.

 

But his alarm went off and he knew he had just had to down multiple cups of coffee and then he would be good to work on reports or to go over investigation files. He felt sick but he still got to work, he was completely out of it and didn’t even hear his teammates greet him.

 

“Yukhei are you alright?” Taeyong’s voice finally rang through Yukhei’s ears, the tired boy looked up from the report sheet.

 

“Yes, I am fine.” 

 

“You literally look like a person that woke up from the dead, go home and rest Yukhei.” Ten said with concern clearly showing on his face.

 

“I am fine, I told you guys.”

 

“Ten is right, go home and rest.” Doyoung stepped out from his office and just took one look at Yukhei and made up his mind. 

 

Yukhei sighed as he stood up from his workplace and headed home without any protest. As he was walking home he made up his mind and walked towards some place else.

  
  


\--

  
  


Just like Yukhei, Yuta couldn’t focus at all, his mind filling with all kinds of things. He hasn’t heard from Kun for the past few days.

 

“Yuta?” 

 

“Hmm?” The said male looked up from all the swimming letters on the paper in front of him, he saw Taeyong leaning on his desk.

 

“Is there something wrong?”

 

“Why would there be anything wrong?”

 

Taeyong pushed himself off from the desk and sat down on the edge of the desk, arms folded over each other, “You seem off. Are you sure nothing is wrong?”

 

It was the concerned look on Taeyong's face that broke Yuta's little bubble he had been living in the past three days. Yuta sighed and leaned back in his chair.

 

“There is something wrong.” Yuta made eye contact with Taeyong, “Kun went to pick up Renjun, together with Chenle.”

 

“What is so bad in that?” Taeyong questioned with his eyebrow raised.

 

“Nothing. But I haven't been able to reach either of them. Not even Renjun or Jeno.” Yuta ran his hand through his hair, “They have been gone for three or probably even four days!”

 

“Did they say where they were going?”

 

“To pick up Renjun at the edge of the forest. Why?” Taeyong stood back up with his head down.

 

“They might be in a lot of trouble.”

 

Yuta's eyes grew wide, “No, you don't think-”

 

“That is exactly what I think, Yuta.” Taeyong looked up, concern clouding his expression. “They might've gone into the forest.”


	5. Not a chapter but it is important

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's good and bad at the same time

Hi, I would like to apologize in advance for not updating in a long time but it has a reason. I kinda have lost most of my motivation for this fic, at least with the way I wrote it, I will leave it up for a little longer but after that I am going to delete this.

But worry not, the story is way too precious to me so I am gonna rewrite it with some changes as well but the idea I have for it makes me happier than with this one. I don't know how long it will take me to write it but do know that it will come.

Thank you for reading though, it means a lot to me so really thank you from the bottom of my heart ❤️

See you soon :) (hopefully)

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it :)  
> If you want to talk or ask me things, here is my [twitter](https://twitter.com/blue_fullsun) and [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/johnnyluvr420)


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